Football fans are racing to place bets on Burnley to win next season's Premier League as they dream of huge payouts following Leicester City's stunning success this year.
Leicester was a 5,000/1 underdog to be crowned champion in 2015-16, but upset the odds to seal the title with two matches to spare when Chelsea held title rival Tottenham to a 2-2 draw on Monday. Much has been made of the lucky punters who backed Claudio Ranieri's team at massive odds throughout the season and now fans are hoping to cash in on what would be another huge windfall.
On the same day as Leicester's title victory, Sean Dyche's Burnley sealed promotion to the Premier League and bookmakers are already dreading another shock result next season.
Sky Bet alone are already facing a liability of £10million having received more than a thousand bets on Burnley winning the title in 2016-17, an amount which dwarfs the £5.6m they had to dish out to winning gamblers who backed Leicester.
Following promotion, Burnley was given the now infamous 5,000/1 odds but have been cut to 1,000/1 within days of securing promotion as bookies look to limit their potential losses.
"As the Football League sponsor, we were expecting interest from fans when we added Burnley into the title betting, but what followed has been quite remarkable and unprecedented," said Sky Bet's Dale Tempest. "Just 128 backed Leicester at the start of this season and we have already got well over a thousand bets on Burnley, making for some pretty frightening reading in our outright book."
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