February 19 – While Video Assistant Refereeing (VAR) once again slowed games to a suffocating standstill, this time in England’s FA Cup matches, bookmakers have wasted no time taking advantage of the opportunity VAR offers for their promotions.
This weekend, Paddy Power offered a VAR money back special to new and existing customers with registered Paddy Power accounts, that bet on the FA Cup 5th round games which featured VAR – Chelsea v Hull and Huddersfield v Man United.
Paddy Power offered any punter backing a first or anytime goalscorer ruled out because of VAR, a full payout within 15 minutes of the goal being disallowed. On Saturday anyone betting on Juan Mata to score would have had their bets paid out even though VAR ruled out his goal. What would have been a more interesting bet would have been whether VAR could reach a decision before Paddy Power had paid out.
A spokesman for Paddy Power SBC: “Whether you’re of the belief that VAR ruins or saves the beautiful game, we don’t care, we’re paying out on it.”
Marketing & Brand Director Michelle Spillane added: “Paddy Power’s objective here is to bring our brand personality to a contentious topic – VAR. We knew a lot of football fans were frustrated at losing out when a goal was disallowed. So we thought, why not turn it on its head?
“So we decided to pay out on any first or anytime goalscorer that was thwarted by VAR in this weekend’s cup games.”
Jeevan Jeyaratnam, Head of Compilation at Betting data and tailored odds specialist Abelson Info, told SBC it is “highly likely that some of the UK operators will offer VAR concessions as a sweetener to offset any potential punter antipathy towards in-play wagers.”
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