{"id":162719,"date":"2025-06-06T10:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T10:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/162719\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T10:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T10:38:11","slug":"how-three-substitutes-and-nine-goals-cost-paddy-power-millions-upon-millions-in-one-of-the-worst-days-in-bookies-history-after-spain-beat-france-5-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/162719\/","title":{"rendered":"How three substitutes &#8211; and nine goals &#8211; cost Paddy Power &#8216;millions upon millions&#8217; in one of the &#8216;worst days in bookies&#8217; history&#8217; after Spain beat France 5-4"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"mol-bullets-with-font\">\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>Spain beat France 5-4 in a thrilling Nations League semi-final on Thursday<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>The action-packed match was a financial disaster for bookmaker Paddy Power<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"class\"><strong><b>The number of goals and substitutions was the stuff of dreams for punters\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/profile-2981\/spencer-morgan.html\" class=\"author\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SPENCER MORGAN<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"> Published:  06:20 EDT, 6 June 2025   |  Updated:  06:32 EDT, 6 June 2025   <\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\"><a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/paddy-power\/index.html\" id=\"mol-5c95a7a0-42b9-11f0-b8e9-0fe19083b26f\" class=\"class\" rel=\"noopener\">Paddy Power<\/a>\u00a0punters will have arrived at work with a spring in their step on Friday morning after Thursday&#8217;s action-packed <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/nations-league\/index.html\" id=\"mol-2fd648b0-42bd-11f0-b8e9-0fe19083b26f\" rel=\"noopener\">Nations League<\/a> clash between Spain and France.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Fans were eagerly anticipating the semi-final showdown between two of the world&#8217;s top footballing nations with an array star attacking players on show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">And it didn&#8217;t disappoint in the slightest as a nine-goal thriller played out at the Stuttgart Arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">European champions Spain tore through the back-to-back World Cup finalists with goals from Nico Williams and Mikel Merino giving them a 2-0 lead at half-time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\"><a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/lamine-yamal\/index.html\" id=\"mol-2fd1dbe0-42bd-11f0-b8e9-0fe19083b26f\" rel=\"noopener\">Lamine Yamal<\/a> and Pedri netted a <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/kylian-mbappe\/index.html\" id=\"mol-2fd1b4d0-42bd-11f0-b8e9-0fe19083b26f\" rel=\"noopener\">Kylian Mbappe<\/a> penalty. Pedri then made it 5-1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">However, the French almost pulled off a miraculous comeback with goals from Rayan Cherki, Dani Vivian and Randal Kolo Muani seeing the game end 5-4.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-8248f7a456b9c929\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/99106749-14786993-image-a-14_1749204326687.jpg\" height=\"464\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Lamine Yamal's Spain (left) were involved in a thrilling clash with Kylian Mbappe's France\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Lamine Yamal&#8217;s Spain (left) were involved in a thrilling clash with Kylian Mbappe&#8217;s France<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-1ea0c97f26b5f00e\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/99106775-14786993-image-a-15_1749204357517.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\" alt=\"The substitution of Dani Vivian (right) for Robin Le Normand helped punters win half a million\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">The substitution of Dani Vivian (right) for Robin Le Normand helped punters win half a million<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">And the incident-filled encounter was exactly what the bookies did not want to see.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">It wasn&#8217;t just the goals that saw punters cash in but the impact of the 10 substitutions that were made during the game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Paddy Power have offered Super Sub &#8211; where a bet stays alive and rolls on to the substituted player if they&#8217;re taken off &#8211; for 973 matches over the last 18 months. This was the most that the initiative ever cost the gambling company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">For example, Mail Sport understands that Vivian coming on for Robin Le Normand and immediately committing a foul won punters somewhere in the region of half a million pounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Samu Aghehowa&#8217;s shot on target after replacing Mikel Oyarzabal would have also cost Paddy Power a small fortune.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Gavi came on for Mikel Merino in 91st minute and was booked in 97th, costing the business around \u00a3200,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">A Paddy Power spokesman said: &#8216;I thought the Nations League was supposed to be boring? I wish it bloody was!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;But fair play to the punters. They&#8217;ve come in, taken advantage of Super Sub and absolutely pulled our pants down, leaving us licking our wounds at Power Tower today.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"linkButtonRowItem\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/france_football\/index.html?ico=article_topics_module\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">France Football<\/a><a class=\"linkButtonRowItem\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/spain_football\/index.html?ico=article_topics_module\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spain Football<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        How three substitutes &#8211; and nine goals &#8211; cost Paddy Power &#8216;millions upon millions&#8217; in one of the &#8216;worst days in bookies&#8217; history&#8217; after Spain beat France 5-4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain beat France 5-4 in a thrilling Nations League semi-final on Thursday The action-packed match was a financial&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[92,2000,299,94,68455,104,4205,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-162719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-france-football","13":"tag-spain","14":"tag-spain-football","15":"tag-sport"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114635990990498303","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}