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The precursor to the Academy Awards movie awards, the Golden Globe Awards, go off on January 17th. Naturally, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association event represents one of the year’s biggest occasions for proposition betting. Below follow the odds on nominees winning in certain categories as provided by Bet 365 online bookmakers, along with gut reactions provided by Live Bets Direct. Read more...

Here’s a good proposition bet for everybody, because we’re all experts on the local weather conditions, right? (Well, except for maybe those academic weasels over at University of East Anglia.) Bet 365 online bookmakers have up their seasonal special entitled simply “Snow on Christmas Day.” Read more...

Tiger's choice: Elin...

Novelty betting fans alert! Online bookmaker Paddy Power has a line that just may be a lightning-in-a-bottle opportunity for punters to cash in on turgid odds for profit. Check out the Irish bookie’s “Tiger Specials,” a table due for adjustment at the end of the day today, December 1.

Whoa, does the Tiger Woods car accident story get weirder daily? In days, reportage has gone from The World’s Greatest Golfer having suffered minor injuries in the wreck that occurred in the wee hours of Friday night/Saturday morning; said injuries were enough to keep him out of a charity tournament on the weekend. Woods released a statement which described “injuries sustained in a one-car accident last week,” more specifically “some cuts, bruising and right now I’m pretty sore.” Read more...

In the opinion of Live Bets Direct, you just can’t have enough beauty contest proposition bets. Not only do such contests of professional pulchritude allow the red-blooded male a more socially-acceptable excuse to partake in, um, online research involving bathing-geared beauties, but this website has managed a 3-0 record since 2008 in playing international pageants.

Though the Miss World 2009 competition won’t be settled in Johannesburg, South Africa, until December 12, bookmakers have naturally released early odds on the contestants’ chances for victory. Unlike the recent Miss Universe 2008 contest, which featured a wide-open field with no individual getting better than a 10/1 chance to win the crown (eventually bestowed upon Miss Venezuela, Stefania Fernandez, a 20/1 shot), Miss World 2009 can be definitively split into haves and have-nots. Read more...

So the bookmakers and popular opinion agree that Gordon Brown and his Labour Party are bulloxed in the next election, no matter when the presumably lame duck prime minister decides to call for one.

In September of this year, the Guardian reported the Conservatives holding a 17-point lead over Labour. Even more disturbing is the Liberals’ closing in to within five points of Labour, thereby further strengthening the third party, which could well post its most successful general election since its re-formation in the late 1980s.

So how badly will Labour fare? The current tabulation of the three major parties’ parliamentarians stands at Labour 213, Conservative 192, and Liberal Democrat 71. The Bet 365 table for each looks as follows: Read more...

Prime minister Gordon Brown has been clinging to the cliff face of Labour Party leadership by his fingernails for forever seemingly and, by the time he ends up finally getting around to calling an election (or the June 3, 2010 deadline, whichever comes first), he could make John Major’s exit from office look like Ronnie Reagan’s.

The latest challenge to Brown’s authority came at last week’s Parliamentary Labour Party meeting, in which backbencher MPs listed grievances plentiful and lengthy, which basically became a litany of threats to the stability of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) chairman’s position; Tony Lloyd, a Brown sympathizer, currently holds the position. Read more...

Come on, even the shameless Obama apologists were a bit embarrassed by the committee naming President Barack the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize: Not only was the man sworn into office some two weeks before the deadline for nomination for the award, not only has he not yet been US president for one year, but he’s actually increased the number of American troops in Afghanistan (plus soon to approve waaaaaay more for duty there, it seems) and shows no sign of closing down Guantanamo as promised on the campaign trail.

So how exactly is Obama worthy of the Pulitzer Prize? Call it a statement against George W. Bush, call it a “gamble” against future returns (yeah, like when Henry Kissinger was bestowed the gift in 1973) of world peace, it all adds up to one thing: A conspiracy against Live Bets Direct. Read more...

Daniel Craig hasn’t indicated when his last picture as James Bond will be, the title for the 23rd film in the series hasn’t been announced, and no one knows the release date beyond 2011, but no matter! The gossipmongers are full of speculation and Paddy Power bookmakers are naturally already set to take bets on the next actor to take the plummest action-adventure role offered in Hollywood. Read more...

Whoever said a little schadenfreude couldn’t be profitable? Certainly not Paddy Power online bookmakers, who are offering a titillating sign-of-the-times novelty bet entitled “End of year unemployment in the UK.”

That’s right. Guess how many folks are officially on the dole on December 31, 2009, according to the national statistics office and you could double your money or better.
Paddy Power’s table looks as follows:

2,700,001 - 3,000,000: 1/1
3,000,001 - 3,300,000: 7/4
2,400,000 - 2,700,000: 5/2
3,300,001 - 3,600,000: 4/1
Under 2.4 million: 6/1
Over 3.6 million: 6/1

Now consider the bleak, bleak statistics, presented in chronological order of release. Read more...

It’s a bit surprising Paddy Power is even offering odds on “The Greatest Irish Sportsperson Ever” poll sponsored by RTÉ One. The Irish television network will be counting down the top 10 on Christmas Day, with results determined by popular vote. While not surprising that the Paddy would be offering a prop bet on this ultra-local event, the shock comes with the table of favorites. I mean, surely this is a two-man race at most, innit? Read more...