‘After boxer Vassiliy Levit was robbed of the heavyweight gold medal last night, we are paying him out as a winner!’ tweeted the Irish bookmaker.
As noted in the company’s blog, Levit looked better than his rival and the audience were shocked by the decision of the three judges, which included an Irish representitive, to award the fight to Evgeny Tishchenko.
“Some of the decisions made at the Olympic have stunk more than the urine samples but last night really took the pee. Anyone who backed the Kazakh fighter will have felt robbed and we feel that the only fair thing to do is to give them their money.” wrote PaddyPower on their blog.
Earlier, the Irish bookmaker announced that they would give money back as a free bet if a Team GB or Irish athlete finished second to a Russian. In response, the Russian bookmaker ‘Liga Stavok’ decided to double the prize on any wins by Russian athletes if they claim first place ahead of a British or Irish athlete.
In June of this year, on the eve of the match between Russia and England at Euro 2016, PaddyPower parked a truck outside the Russian embassy on which had Jamie Vardy’s famous phrase ‘Chat Shit Get Banged’ written on the side using Russian lettering.