Bookmaker stops taking airline failure bets
06.10.08
Irish bookmaker Paddy Power has stopped taking online bets on the next airline to go bust after furious condemnation from the aviation industry. The bookmaker pulled the betting list from its website after airline lobbying group Bar UK warned it risked tipping airlines into bankruptcy and at least one of the airlines identified as being likely to collapse was considering legal action against the bookmaker.
Paddy Power had been taking bets on the airlines for about a month and had singled out Air Berlin, Flyglobespan, SkyEurope and Spanair to be the most likely to disappear. The site took a flood of bets on XL collapsing shortly before it went bust and airlines feared being named on the site would undermine consumer confidence.
Mike Carrivick, chief executive of Bar UK, said: ‘It was highly dangerous because it could have created doubt about a company and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It was not illegal but was extremely undesirable.’ A spokesman for Paddy Power said it had taken the web page down because far fewer bets were being placed.
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