Fred Done Wrongly Paid Out on Man United Winning the League TWICE

Anyone that has ever placed a bet before will know how difficult it is to try to get some money out of a bookmaker. It is usually like trying to get blood out of a stone, with the bookies searching for reasons not to pay you if they can find any. Even if they do pay out, if that happens too often then you might suddenly find your account being limited and the bets you are able to place much smaller than in the past. It is quite a story when a bookmaker decides to pay out early on something that ends up not happening and, when a bookie makes the same mistake twice, you know that they’ve messed up. Enter Fred Done…

Who Is Fred Done?

Fred Done was born in the March of 1943, growing up with three siblings in the Ordsall area of Greater Manchester. At the age of 15, Fred and his brother Peter left school without having gained any qualifications, beginning work for his father’s bookmakers, which was illegal at the time. In 1960, the Betting & Gaming Act was introduced to Parliament, passing on the first of September and becoming legal at the start of the following year. The Act said that bookmakers would be allowed to open actual premises up and down the country, which is something that the Done brothers wanted to take keen advantage of.

The pair gathered some money together in order to place a bet on England to win the 1966 World Cup, which turned out to be a winner. They then used the money from that wager in order to open a legal betting shop of their own in Salford where they grew up, just yards away from the Manchester Racecourse that Fred Done had worked on when he was younger. It was the start of an empire, with Betfred, the name that the bookmaker took on as the years passed, going on to become one of the biggest bookmakers in the United Kingdom, boasting nearly 2,000 shops by 2020 and not looking to slow down at all.

Paying Out Early on United in 1998

Fred Done grew up as a Manchester United fan, meaning that his heart was always in watching the Red Devils pick up three points whenever they played. The problem with that, of course, is that you can lose all perspective when you’re passionate about something, which is exactly what happened to Done in 1998. At the time, Man United were 12 points clear at the top of the Premier League, having just beaten Chelsea 1-0 at Stamford Bridge thanks to a rare goal from Phil Neville. That meant that Done believed that the title was as good as in the bag for his side, having seen them win plenty under Alex Ferguson’s management.

It is one thing believing that your club is going to win the title, it is quite another to pay out on bets placed on them doing so with your bookmaker business. That is evidenced by the fact that Done became the first bookmaker in the country to do as much, delighting Manchester United fans in the process. The only person he didn’t delight was Ferguson, with Arsenal having three games in hand on United and winning them all, whilst United lost to Sheffield Wednesday, drew with West Ham United and then lost to the Gunners themselves. It meant that they pipped them to the title by a point, with Ferguson telling Done never to pay out early again.

Paying Out Early Again in 2012

Ferguson might well have told Done not to pay out early on his team again, but Done didn’t listen. Having seen the Red Devils win the title at the end of the 2010-2011 season, Done was convinced that they were going to retain it in the following campaign. That confidence was in spite of the fact that Manchester City had been owned by Sheikh Mansour and the Abu Dhabi Group for a few years by that point, with the club’s work in signing players coming to the boil. In fact, that were doing so well that they defeated Ferguson’s men 6-1 at Old Trafford in one of the biggest Manchester derby defeats ever for him.

When United defeated Blackburn Rovers 2-0 at Ewood Park on the second of April, putting the club five points clear of their neighbours, Done decided that was enough to guarantee the Premier League title’s return to Old Trafford. Having lost half a million pound when he paid out early on the Red Devils winning the title in 1998, it seemed that the bookmaker had learned nothing from the chastening experience and he did the same thing again. At the same time that he was paying on on a United title win that season, his company Betfred was installing City as the favourites for the following campaign, giving them odds of 7/4.

What happened next will be cemented into the minds of the majority of Premier League fans. United won against Queen Park Rangers in their following match, but faced a surprise defeat to Wigan Athletic, drew with Everton and then lost to City themselves at the Etihad. It meant that they needed City to drop points elsewhere in their remaining games, with United winning against Swansea City and Sunderland. When the full-time whistle went in the game at the Stadium of Light the Red Devils were winning the title, only for Edin Džeko and Sergio Agüero to score two goals in two minutes and take the title at the death.