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Does anyone know how much money bookmakers actually take on Novelty Betting? Is it simply a publicity generating mechanism or are their decent sized bets placed?
My own favourite in recent times was the betting on the next Pope, where Bono and Father Dougal (Craggy Island) were joint outsiders on 2000/1 and I explained to my Wife that Bono HAD to be the value of the two. The worst value I ever saw on this market was Paul Gascoigne at 150/1 to be the next England manager, shortly after he had been sacked by Kettering Town. Words fail.
I managed a betting office for 10 years and once took a bet on Elvis Presley still being alive. The odds were 500/1 and I expected the guy to put a pound or two on at most. Phone calls to head office had to be made as he whipped out his wallet and stuck £600 on the counter. The bet ran for 12 months with fingerprint proof required and to this day I wonder if the guy was on day release from somewhere at the time.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
The word ‘novelty’ has perhaps been downgraded from betting markets with things like reality TV betting, Eurovision, Sports personality etc becoming quite mainstream.
However, I do remember the ‘Who Shot JR?’ storyline being priced up in the early 80’s (worked for Stanley Leisure at the time) and I think that was the first real novelty market that had impact.
Much of the nation was hooked on Dallas and there was plenty of tabloid interest in first of all the story and then the betting market itself. I took money on it!
Mike
I managed a betting office for 10 years and once took a bet on Elvis Presley still being alive. The odds were 500/1 and I expected the guy to put a pound or two on at most. Phone calls to head office had to be made as he whipped out his wallet and stuck £600 on the counter. The bet ran for 12 months with fingerprint proof required and to this day I wonder if the guy was on day release from somewhere at the time.
Cracking!
Things like x factor and big brother must generate interest. Does any one remember 2 winters ago when a guy put an accumulator on for it to snow in 8 towns and won. But the bookies refused to pay him out!
I might be mistaken, but I think someone had money on life being found on Mars. The was some controversy about NASA finding sighs of life possibly existing ( or existed), Mirco organisms according to newspaper reports, but he was refused on payment.
Does any one remember 2 winters ago when a guy put an accumulator on for it to snow in 8 towns and won. But the bookies refused to pay him out!
I should hope so, the ulimate related contingency bet!
Mike
NASA finding sighs of life possibly existing
Were the locals pissed off about all the probing then?
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
US election prediction betting on Intrade is basically free money. It’s a very different system than any others I’ve seen, like a stock market for election outcomes (or game wins, TV show results, etc.) For example, right now Romney’s Intrade odds to win Kentucky in this upcoming election are at about 86%. KY is a guaranteed super-duper Republican stronghold when it comes to national elections, so as the election approaches its odds will go close to 100% and its price will skyrocket. Buy "stock" in Romney Wins Kentucky while it’s low, sell high in a few weeks. Cha-ching.
This was quite fun in the last election when John McCain’s campaign essentially collapsed in mid-2007 and stayed low for quite some time. People who kept that stock and sold it in August 2008 when he was at the height of his polling numbers made thousands of dollars.
US election prediction betting on Intrade is basically free money. It’s a very different system than any others I’ve seen, like a stock market for election outcomes (or game wins, TV show results, etc.) For example, right now Romney’s Intrade odds to win Kentucky in this upcoming election are at about 86%. KY is a guaranteed super-duper Republican stronghold when it comes to national elections, so as the election approaches its odds will go close to 100% and its price will skyrocket. Buy "stock" in Romney Wins Kentucky while it’s low, sell high in a few weeks. Cha-ching.
This was quite fun in the last election when John McCain’s campaign essentially collapsed in mid-2007 and stayed low for quite some time. People who kept that stock and sold it in August 2008 when he was at the height of his polling numbers made thousands of dollars.
There doesn’t seem to be much liquidity on Intrade at the moment with beer money available at 86%. Over here, Betfair offer the Dems at 8.2/1 for Kentucky (also for peanuts), so the percentage vaguely tallies between the two.
There is a risk though. Kentucky has a decent history of voting in Democrats, most recently Clinton in 1992 & 1996 which is hardly ancient history. Generally rural and largely white, it should be Republican and has been
very
much so in recent years, but if Romney insists on putting his foot in it at every opportunity his campaign could implode.
Betfair are now 1.3 Obama 4.0 Romney, a marked shift from the 1.6/2.5 of a couple of weeks’ ago.
Mike
Way back before internet access was commonplace a punter of mine placed money on Tuna Lund to win the world poker championship at 40/1, I have a feeling the late Kojak star Telly Savalas was in the field that year. Anyway, I could never find the result anywhere and the ticket sat in the office for about five years before the punter wrote to the Racing Post and found out he didn’t back a winner based on a fishy first name. I was then able to take the ticket (which was yellowed by ciggie smoke and was as kippered as Tuna was in the tournament) and plunge it onto the loser’s spike. The one and only bet on Poker and a winner for the company, we netted £1 and it earned me personally 20p. Isn’t life sweet.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
US election prediction betting on Intrade is basically free money. It’s a very different system than any others I’ve seen, like a stock market for election outcomes (or game wins, TV show results, etc.) For example, right now Romney’s Intrade odds to win Kentucky in this upcoming election are at about 86%. KY is a guaranteed super-duper Republican stronghold when it comes to national elections, so as the election approaches its odds will go close to 100% and its price will skyrocket. Buy "stock" in Romney Wins Kentucky while it’s low, sell high in a few weeks. Cha-ching.
This was quite fun in the last election when John McCain’s campaign essentially collapsed in mid-2007 and stayed low for quite some time. People who kept that stock and sold it in August 2008 when he was at the height of his polling numbers made thousands of dollars.
There doesn’t seem to be much liquidity on Intrade at the moment with beer money available at 86%. Over here, Betfair offer the Dems at 8.2/1 for Kentucky (also for peanuts), so the percentage vaguely tallies between the two.
There is a risk though. Kentucky has a decent history of voting in Democrats, most recently Clinton in 1992 & 1996 which is hardly ancient history. Generally rural and largely white, it should be Republican and has been
very
much so in recent years, but if Romney insists on putting his foot in it at every opportunity his campaign could implode.
Betfair are now 1.3 Obama 4.0 Romney, a marked shift from the 1.6/2.5 of a couple of weeks’ ago.
Mike
Clinton was a white good ol’boy from Appalachia, Obama is a black guy from Illinois who many Kentuckians think is a Muslim from Kenya. Ain’t no way Kentucky swings for him. Plenty of Democrats get elected on a local level, but they’re old-guard yellow dog Democrats ("I’d rather vote for a yellow dog than a Republican, why, the Republicans got rid of our slaves!"). If you think I’m exaggerating anything, trust me, I’m not.
I mean, West Virginia voted for Clinton; this year 40% of their vote in the Dem primaries went to a white supremacist currently in prison.
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