Patriotic punters have been buoyed by recent news that Bayern Munich’s French playmaker Franck Ribery may miss Ireland’s World Cup playoff games.
Bookie Paddy Power has reported a significant increase in betting on Ireland to qualify for the World Cup today. However, France remain red hot favourites to win the two legged playoff at 1/3 with Ireland an unlikely 11/5.
A spokesperson for the bookmaker commented: “It had been a pretty quiet betting heat until this morning when we had a welcome rush on Ireland. We’d all like to wish Franck Ribery a speedy recovery, just not too speedy! The odds haven’t changed just yet but I’d expect them to shorten in the run up to the big Croker clash.”
Meanwhile, the bookie is also taking bets on how many Irish fans manage to get inside the Stade de France in Paris for the crucial second leg of the playoff following news of a measly 8,000 tickets allocated to them.
The bookmaker is offering odds of 8/1 that the Irish blow that amount out of the water and wangle 30,000 of Irish fans into the Stade de France.
Though, it should not be as easy to get tickets to the Irish leg and it is just 6/4 that the most expensive ticket on Ebay for the match goes for more than €500.