Irish bookmaker Paddy Power loses $990,000 after paying out early to customers who bet on Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clintons loss meant a loss for Paddy Power.

(Image credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 11 November 2016

Not too many people can say they saw Donald Trump's win coming, least of all bookies. Having assumed Hillary Clinton would win the election, Irish bookmaker Paddy Power actually paid out £800,000 (over $990,000) early to customers who bet on her, The Independent reports.

"We're in the business of making predictions and decided to put our neck on the line by paying out early on Hillary Clinton, but boy did we get it wrong," a Paddy Power spokesman told The Guardian. "We've been well and truly thumped by Trump, with his victory leaving us with the biggest political payout in the company's history and some very, very expensive egg on our faces."

For U.K. bookmakers, it's been a year of impossible odds. A $12 bet on Donald Trump winning the election, Britain leaving the EU, and the soccer team Leicester City winning the Premier League would have reportedly resulted in well over $37 million. "The odds suggest bookmakers believed there was 0.000033 chance of all three events taking place — a combination that was considered so unimaginable that, it is thought, no one in the U.K. placed a bet on them all," The Independent writes.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox