From The Trading Desk: Customers cash in on continental football

bet365's Steve Freeth recalls a dramatic weekend of football action in the UK and on the continent.

Premier League final day underwhelms

I wouldn’t say it was the most anticipated final day of a Premier League season ever as many markets had already been settled, leaving only the European spots up for grabs.

The goals markets were popular, as is always the case on the final day, but the expected goal-fest never materialised. We did not have too much to worry about with seven of the 10 games going under 2.5 and with both teams scoring in just five matches.

The only losers on the Premier League coupon were 6/5 West Ham at Ipswich and 17/20 Brighton at Spurs, while short ones like 2/7 Newcastle and 4/11 Liverpool dropped points and 1/4 Arsenal only scraped past Southampton.

Favourites reign supreme in Spain

The real damage occurred on the continent, where we took a bit of a hiding! Our worst result was 23/20 Atletico Madrid’s 4-0 win at Girona with substitute Alexander Sorloth doing the business for punters as well as the visitors, as our Sub On Play On concession came to the fore.

Backers of Antoine Griezmann would ordinarily have backed a loser with the Frenchman being replaced in the 62nd minute. However, the oncoming Sorloth bagged a hat-trick, with Griezmann bets settled as winners in markets such as First Goalscorer, Any Time Scorer, Score 2+, Hat-trick and Player Shots.

Staying in La Liga, we also had 11/10 Barcelona winning at Athletic Bilbao with Robert Lewandowski scoring a brace, further compounding our misery. Then there was the chaos in Serie A!

Napoli secure Scudetto

It was carnage in Italy after Napoli had secured the title with several sides winning from behind. The main culprits were 9/20 Juventus and 27/20 Fiorentina, who managed to seal their Conference League spot with a win at Udinese, breaking 2/5 Lazio hearts in the process - one of the few results that went our way!

Furthermore, we also paid out on 5/6 Atalanta when they went 2-0 up against Parma, only for the visitors to roar back and secure safety with a 3-2 win, meaning we had paid out on both sides.