The perils of trading the Next Manager Markets from the outside. It must be true, the bookies 'were shocked' and it's in the Daily Star:
VILLAGERS in the sleepy home town of new Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers raked in a fortune by backing him for the job.
Shocked bookies suspected a leak and suspended betting on him after a string of big-money punts, despite the then Swansea chief being a 10-1 outsider.
A Daily Star Sunday investigation can reveal more than £100,000 was wagered from the small village of Carnlough and neighbouring Larne in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
And delighted locals were celebrating a monster payout when their hero Rodgers – nicknamed Fudgey – was named the new Kop boss.
The betting sensation has now prompted claims that punters had inside information that Rodgers, 39, had been offered and accepted the Liverpool job.
Shortly after 3pm last Saturday, Northern Irish bookies slashed odds dramatically as a flurry of bets came in for Rodgers – before closing the betting.
McLeans bookies cashier Laura Gribben, 32, who works in the Larne branch, said: “We stopped laying bets on Rodgers on Saturday because everyone was wanting to get hundreds on him.
“A rumour that he had got the job spread like wildfire. My dad and his mates even got a bet on it.”
Nearby betting shop Toals also suspended betting.
The rumour is said to have started at McAuley’s pub, where Rodgers’ brother Declan runs the Cheyennes disco upstairs, where Brendan used to dance.
Barmaid Ciodhna McCormick said: “All the lads in the pub backed Fudgey last Saturday.”
Rodgers was an outsider, having turned down Liverpool’s approach to talk to him when the heavy punts were laid.
One bookmaker said: “It started around 3pm on Saturday.
“Out of nowhere we were seeing big bets being placed online and over the phone – and every one of them was from Carnlough or the surrounding areas.
He added: “It was only when I got texts from contacts at other bookmakers that we realised this was Rodgers’ home town. That was when we started to panic and had no choice but to keep chopping the price.
“Seven-to-one, 9-2, 3-1, 2-1, evens – but the money kept coming.
“You’d see the surnames cropping up too, entire families were lumping on. When you see a pattern like that you presume there’s inside info going round and it looks like they had.”In other news, scientists have discovered that water is wet.
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