They say the bookie always wins, but not on Tuesday night.

Three weeks ago, bookmaker Paddy Power paid out £800,000 in winnings to punters who had backed Hillary Clinton to be the next US president, only now to be left with a bill for £4m to pay clients who had backed Donald Trump.

“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,” a Paddy Power spokesman said.



“We’ve been well and truly thumped by Trump, with his victory leaving us with the biggest political payout in the company’s history and some very, very expensive egg on our faces.”