Outlandish Move
Paddy Power, one of the UK’s most popular bookmakers, is famous for its outlandish marketing campaigns and moves, and it has shocked punters once again by paying out all bets on Celtic to win the Scottish Premiership after just one game.
Celtic Dominance
Paddy Power has paid out bets early on league winners several times in the past, including when they paid punters early for Sheffield United to be relegated from the Premier League last season. Of course, they have never done it as early as this, with the SPFL season only being one game deep.
Celtic kicked off their campaign on Saturday, August 3rd, with a dominant 4-0 win over Kilmarnock. Goals from Reo Hatete, Liam Scales, Nicolas-Gerrit Kuhn, and Anthony Ratson got their title challenge underway in style, and their display was enough to convince Paddy Power that Brendan Rodgers’s team already has the league title wrapped up.
The Bhoys have dominated the Scottish Premiership for well over a decade, winning 12 of the last 13 league titles, with Rangers solitary league win in 2020/21 preventing them from recording ten consecutive league titles.
League Over
After Celtic’s dominant 4-0 victory on Saturday, Rangers failed to win their opening game, drawing 0-0 with Hearts at Ibrox. This result prompted Paddy Power to take to X (former Twitter) to reveal their decision.
The popular bookmaker posted, “Sod it, we've seen enough already. We're paying out on Celtic to win the 2024/25 Scottish Premiership!” alongside a video of Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers laughing.
While history suggests that Celtic are likely to win the title, Paddy Power's bold move to pay out these bets with only one game of the season gone is a risky move. We will have to wait for the end of the season to find out if it was worth it.
