Friday 12 August 2016 12:58, UK
Manchester United have attracted almost a third of all bets on the Premier League title with Sky Bet ahead of this weekend's kick-off.
The online bookmaker report that Jose Mourinho's men are by far the best-backed side, with just over 30 per cent of stakes coming for them to claim the title.
United's odds have been cut from 8/1 to 3/1 amid the arrival of Mourinho, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the world-record acquisition of Paul Pogba, although their neighbours City remain favourites at 9/4.
However, Sky Bet report that a mere 3.6 per cent of bets have been on Pep Guardiola's side, while Arsenal are also struggling to attract interest at 6/1, with 5.3 per cent backing Arsene Wenger to oversee the end of their 13-year wait.
Liverpool are the second best backed, with 14.3 per cent on them at 8/1, while 7.8 per cent fancy Tottenham to bounce back from their end-of-season collapse by claiming a first Premier League title at 10/1.
Reigning champions Leicester have attracted almost exactly the same amount of support as Spurs at 28/1 to defend their title, having defied odds of 5,000/1 to record one of sport's greatest upsets last season.
Sky Bet's Dale Tempest insists that it is the big-priced outsiders that the bookmakers are fearing rather than the favourites following the Foxes' feat.
"Manchester United are attracting the majority of the money but they'd still be a relatively good result in our outright book compared to those available at four-figure odds," he said.
"We paid out £4.6m on Leicester's remarkable triumph and punters are understandably more keen than ever to get on the big prices, including Burnley representing a £10m liability if they win the title, having been backed at as long as 5,000/1."
