A major online bookmaker has decided it must pay out thousands of dollars to gamblers, after there they misunderstand a soap opera storyline.

The bookmaker decided to take bets on which Coronation Street character was going to kill Charlie Stubbs. The misunderstanding was tat the bookmaker thought they were going to do a "Who shot JR" style cliff hanger ending, but the name of the killer, Tracy Barlow was a well known fact so much so that it had been said in promotions for the show.

A spokesman for the bookmaker has said the bookie will pay those who correctly named Tracy as the killer. The spokesman also said that this foul up will cost the bookmaker close to $40,000.

He added that the press for the upcoming show made it sound as if it were going to be a cliff hanger, like the one from Eastenders " Who shot Phil Mitchell" from a few years back.

"What we did not know was that when we started taking bets on the story line everyone but us, already knew who the killer was" said the spokesman "We thought it as a 50 horse race, but in reality it was a one horse race."