Football betting: Super 6 jackpot missed but Sky Bet's Soccer Special Price Boost wins at 6/1
Three players share £10,000 consolation prize in free-to-play game
Tuesday 27 December 2016 14:04, UK
Festive football fans were out of luck as the bumper £1m jackpot in the Soccer Saturday Super 6 game was not won on Boxing Day.
No-one managed to correctly predict the six scorelines in the 1500 GMT Premier League kick-offs, West Ham's 4-1 win over Swansea providing the biggest blow to the jackpot hopes, although more than 1,000 players still plumped for that scoreline.
Three players split the £10,000 consolation prize. They were Ross Douglas, from Motherwell, Jonathan Boyd, from Jersey, and Michael Heald, from Barnoldswick in Lancashire.
The trio all corrected predicted four scorelines and two results for a score of 24 points and also nailed the right golden goal time of 13 minutes.
The Super 6 match scores were as follows:
Arsenal 1-0 West Brom
Burnley 1-0 Middlesbrough
Chelsea 3-0 Bournemouth
Leicester 0-2 Everton
Manchester United 3-1 Sunderland
Swansea 1-4 West Ham
The next Super 6 game, which is free to play, takes place on New Year's Eve. Click here to enter.
While Super 6 players missed out, Sky Bet punters received a belated Christmas present on Boxing Day as the Soccer Special Price Boost delivered again on a nightmare day for the bookies.
No fewer than 15 of the day's 18 best-backed teams won, leaving the firm with losses of more than £8million.
The popular winners included Arsenal, Chelsea and West Ham. The Price Boost treble had been enhanced from 4/1 to 6/1 and all three duly won to leave the Leeds-based bookmakers crying into their festive food.
With Chelsea and West Ham both cruising to victory, it was a late goal by Arsenal's Olivier Giroud which proved decisive.
West Brom held the Gunners goalless for 86 minutes before Giroud headed the Gunners' winner.
Sky Bet's head of public relations Sandro Di Michele said: "It was another Christmas present for backers of the SSPB as we paid out again.
"It's the third consecutive set of fixtures that the Soccer Saturday or Soccer Special Price Boost has landed and all we can do is congratulate customers and wish them a very merry Christmas.
"December is the worst month in living memory for bookmakers and had it not been for Newcastle this would have been the worst day in the company's history and probably the industry.
"Some people moan about getting socks for Christmas but we didn't even get those!"
