Dublin bookie takes a £20,000 fall after Paisley resigns
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
Print
Email
It was a fitting final shot from the puritanical street preacher and arch-unionist: Ian Paisley's shock resignation cost a Dublin bookie £20,000 last night.
Last month Paddy Power began offering odds on Dr Paisley's departure - and
took so many bets on a resignation this year that it closed the book two
weeks ago.
Eager punters drove the odds on a 2008 resignation from
a 4/5 starting price to 1/5 when betting closed.
Paddy Power said
there had been a "flood of bets" on a resignation before the end
of this year.
"When Ian jnr stepped down we started betting
on when the big man would follow suit," he said.
"They
piled into 2008 so it may be a shock announcement to some, but certainly not
to all."
The bookie has installed Peter Robinson as the
overwhelming favourite to succeed Dr Paisley in May.
The odds on
Robinson becoming First Minister had dropped to 1/4 even before last night's
announcement.
Post a comment
Limit: 500 characters
View all comments that have been posted about this article
Offensive or abusive comments will be removed and your IP address logged and may be used to prevent further submissions. In submitting a comment to the site, you agree to be bound by BelfastTelegraph.co.uk's Terms of Use