Irish bookmaker Paddy Power is regretting its decision to pay out early to customers who had bet on a Hillary Clinton win in the U.S. presidential election.
Donald Trump’s shocking victory has cost the bookmaker nearly $5 million.
CNBC reports that in October, Paddy Power paid out £800,000 ($992,528) in bets place on Clinton after a series of negative news stories threatened to derail Donald Trump's campaign.
As Trump’s poll numbers continued to collapse, the bookmaker referred to Clinton as a “nailed-on certainty to occupy the Oval Office.”
“Should Trump upset the odds and become 45th President,” Paddy Power announced at the time, “it will trigger the biggest political payout in bookmaking history and leave Paddy Power with some very expensive pie on its face.”
The bookmaker said that it had been hit for more than £4 million ($4.96 million) by those who'd backed Donald Trump to win.
She's had enough, anyway... pic.twitter.com/lBldcthour
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) November 9, 2016
"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," Paddy Power spokesperson Lewis Davey said in a statement Wednesday.
"We've been well and truly thumped by Trump, with his victory leaving us with the biggest political pay-out in the company's history and some very, very expensive egg on our faces," he added.
Undeterred by the loss, Paddy Power has already began to take bets on a host of "Trump specials,” pricing him at 4/1 to be re-elected come 2020, 20/1 to build a wall spanning "the entirety" of the U.S.-Mexican border, and evens to make Russia his first international visit.
Can't believe the Death Eaters had another meeting last night. pic.twitter.com/olUGWd5lnP
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) November 13, 2016
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