by Anton Johan
Paddy Power has not started the year out on a good foot after rowing
with charter airline group, Monarch Airlines.
The carrier has angrily dismissed speculations that it is on the verge of
going bust after Paddy Power slashed these odds from 50-1 to 4-1.
Paddy Power took over 100 bets around the Christmas period, leading to the
changes in its odds.
The group has denied that it had insider information regarding the future of
Monarch Airlines.
"If it wasn't so serious it would be laughable," said the Managing Director
of Monarch Airlines, Tim Jeans.
According to Jeans, the airline has shown to be consistently profitable over
the past forty years and is currently still "very secure".
He also said that the 2500 employees of the airline did not find the
"publicity stunt" amusing.
"People put two and two together and say Monarch's a charter airline and make
their bets accordingly. But Monarch's business is far different from those
people," he said.
Paddy Power said that just because it had reduced the odds did not mean that
the airline was on the brink of collapse.
"Our punters have put money on Monarch to be the next airline out of a list
of airlines to go bust, and that's the only information we have," said a
spokesperson for the group.
"It probably will turn out to be false because we've had false favorites in
this market before that punters haven't collected on, but have gambled on
nonetheless," he added.
