Bookies pray for Saints flag

GARY Ablett's Brownlow win was a wipeout for bookmakers, but the full extent of the losses won't be known until after the Grand Final.

GARY Ablett's Brownlow win was a wipeout for bookmakers, but the full extent of the losses won't be known until after the Grand Final.

Not only did punters around Australia plunge on Ablett to win the Brownlow, but they also unloaded on the double into Geelong for the flag.

"This is a bad as it gets," Darwin Sportsbet's Phil Hannah said.

"I know we copped it from all angles, but I'm sure it'll be the same for all the betting shops."

TAB Sportsbet's Gary Davies said: "We'll balance the books from tonight then, like every other bookie, hope like hell the Saints beat the Cats on Saturday.

"Ablett winning will definitely make the Cats start shorter for the Grand Final because of the big money bet on the Brownlow/flag double."

Davies said punters bet a record $5.7 million with TAB Sportsbet alone, up 15 per cent on last year. And $125,000 was bet during the count.

Ablett started the season as much as $11 and one punter plonked on $4300 for a collect of $47,300 with Darwin Sportsbet.

Bigger bets with TAB Sportsbet pre-season were $9000 at $6.50 and another $8000 at $6.

But the really serious money came for the champion Geelong midfielder yesterday.

"We were staggered with the sheer weight of bets for Ablett through today," Davies said. "It started coming when he was $3 before the preliminary final, but he was $2.75 into $2.20 in the last five hours before they started the count.

"Bigger bets were $10,000 at $2.75 and another $10,000 at $2.50, but this plunge was more the general punting public deciding Ablett was over the line. They were right."

It was a case of third time lucky for Ablett punters. He was beaten favourite at $2.25 in 2007 and $2.75 last year, but started his shortest price yet at $2.20 last night.

Hannah and Betfair's Jake Norton said the big money kept coming during the count.

"The whole count centred around Ablett from very early and the punters bet accordingly," Norton said.

"Even though Ablett seemed to have it in the bag a long way from the finish, we did massive business betting in the run. It's a real growth area."

Hannah said: "Darwin Sportsbet took bets of $21,000 and $20,000 at $2.40 in the hour before the count then another of $20,000 at $1.85 after the votes were announced for round seven.

"As if Ablett winning wasn't bad enough, the punters also got us big time on the Ablett/Judd quinella and for Ablett to be leader at the halfway mark.

"And we bet plenty of $5 over the past couple of days for the Ablett/Geelong double, but that was right into $3.40 after bets of $3000 at $4.90, a couple of $2000s at $4.20 and another $2000 at $3.40."