From The Trading Desk: Bookmakers savour Crystal Palace FA Cup triumph

bet365's Steve Freeth takes a look back at a riveting weekend of football at home and abroad.

Glasner's boys make history

Our traders were glad all over and toasting Oliver Glasner and Crystal Palace on Saturday night.

His master plan worked a treat as favourites Manchester City fired a blank in the FA Cup Final with Erling Haaland passing up a penalty in the first-half in what was a final for neutrals and bookmakers alike.

Fulham coupon busters

Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Newcastle was fine as a standalone game having earlier seen 2/5 Everton signing off from Goodison with a 2-0 victory, while Nottingham Forest also won at West Ham. Additionally, 10/3 Jamie Vardy scored first, marking his 500th and final appearance with his 200th goal for 5/4 Leicester. 

Our saving grace was Fulham, who denied punters a Premier League full-house when fighting back from 2-1 down to win 3-2 at Brentford.

Drama across the continent

In Europe on Saturday, we were indebted to both Union Berlin and Le Havre, who saved us from a potential mauling on the continent as their respective seasons concluded.

In France, we saw wins for 2/5 Lille, 1/6 Lyon, 8/13 Marseille, 4/7 Nantes, 1/2 Nice and 1/10 PSG. Le Havre’s victory over 4/9 Strasbourg, secured by a 99th minute Panenka to avoid relegation, was timely, to say the least!

Our highlight in the Bundesliga was the turnaround at Augsburg, where the 9/10 hosts went in leading at half-time, only for visitors Union Berlin to bring on Andres Ilic, who saved our bacon with a second half brace.

Surprisingly it was title chasers Napoli (1/2) and Milan (4/6) who came to our rescue in Serie A with both sides only drawing. Third placed Atalanta (5/4) had got punters off to a great start by winning 3-2 at Genoa with a record breaking winner from top scorer Mateo Retegui.

Barcelona suffered a home defeat to 16/5 Villarreal, but punters were wary of Hansi Flick’s outfit having already been confirmed as champions. With Mbappe and Bellingham both on the scoresheet for Real Madrid, plus a number of hotpots obliging, we ended up flat in La Liga.

Eurovision fever

I do like a bit of Eurovision, I’m not saying I was sitting in a sauna singing ‘Bara Bada Bastu’ on Saturday night, but we managed to get our big bogey Sweden beat in the Grand Final, and although JJ and Austria were popular, our figures were solid in what remains the most popular ‘Special’ we bet on.