Your one-stop shop for novelty betting

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...

Benedict XVI, he of the dark past

Sure, Pope Benedict XVI is all right now after doctors announced that a cast on the padre’s arm had been removed and the dislocated bones completely healed, but that won’t stop punters from ponying up on Herr Ratzinger’s successor. Indeed, Paddy Power has recorded quite a run on betting on its nearly-perpetual “Who Will Be The Next Pope?” proposition bet.

Well, hey, why not? After all, the worst thing that can happen to an outgoing pope is his Eternal Reward, right? So why shouldn’t the living be allowed to make a few bucks on the earthly historical event of papal succession? (Remember that not one passage of Torah, Koran or Bible declaims gambling as a sin.) Read more...

On a day the world (over)reacts to the official judgment that Michael Jackson’s death was in fact a homicide, Live Bets Direct naturally looks at a fascinating – and probably quite prescient – King of Pop-centric novelty bet.

Mariah: "I'm bad, i'm bad, really really bad..."

Entitled “Top The Charts” within Paddy Power’s “Michael Jackson specials” section, this proposition is open for business in addressing the question, “Who will hit No. 1 on the UK BBC Radio 1 chart with a remake of a Michael Jackson song?” As is typical of the Paddy, lots of jokey suggestions make the list of 23 names posted (Amy Winehouse, indeed), so let’s consider the serious possibilities only. The reasonably-edited list might look something like so:

Janet Jackson/The Jacksons: 4/6
Justin Timberlake: 6/1
Mariah Carey: 8/1
Usher: 10/1
U2: 18/1
Whitney Houston: 20/1

(And I’m not particularly buying Justin Timberlake, either, really.) Read more...

Of all the novelty bets coming and going throughout the year, none are so much to research as Paddy Power’s annual “Miss Universe Winner” proposition wager. After this writer’s decent showing last year (netting $162.50 per $100), this one really requires some analysis from the Os Man. We’ll be working with a Live Bets Direct bankroll of $100 again and spreading that ‘round a bit. Read more...

Sometimes Hollywood makes no sense at all. Here’s the film industry cranking out every conceivable remake of works from every adaptable genre – books, TV, comic books … especially comic books. After a year in which the box office was ruled by first “Iron Man” then “The Dark Knight,” we can expect years and years of superhero flick after superhero flick. Seriously: “Ghost Rider II” is coming. And the “Green Lantern” movie. And “Thor” – directed by Kenneth Branagh, he of the Shakespeare flicks, no less.

So here’s a question. Where the hell is the Wonder Woman live-action movie?

Seriously, isn’t this is no-brainer? Isn’t Wonder Woman a household name of a sort that few comic book heroes outside of Superman, Batman and Spiderman have ever been before their on-screen adaptations? And how could two hours devoted to the screen time of one hot scantily-clad female who kicks ass in the streets? (Plus, don’t forget our heroine’s origin story, which would take place on Paradise Island, home of the like scantily-clad all-female Amazon race, and could occupy, what, the first 30 minutes of a feature film?) Read more...

So which of these is more inevitable: The huge Hollywood biopic on Michael Jackson probably already the subject of dozens of pre-pre-pre-production meetings or Paddy Power bookmakers “making things interesting” by offering a cheeky novelty bet on the subject?

We’ll run though the Paddy’s posted possibilities on the prop momentarily, but prospective punters should first note that “Bets void should no movie about Michael Jackson’s life be released.” Yeah, like that’s gonna happen.

Prospective names for the untitled Michael Jackson project, according to Paddy Power, include:

Michael (4/1) – It’s good and short, that’s for sure. Paddy didn’t post a line on “M.J.” as a possible title, perhaps as the initials are now trademarked by Michael Jordan. Are the Hollywood people sure His Airness doesn’t own all rights to use of the name “Michael”?

Invincible (8/1) – Come on, this sounds like a depressed superhero flick starring Will Smith. Or Bruce Willis. Or Ben Stiller. Next!

Thriller (9/1) – Possible, but can’t you imagine the Michael Jackson estate suing itself for rights on a title belonging to the biggest-selling album ever?

You are not Alone, Leave Me Alone (both 10/1) – If they go the horror route, maybe. Or if they run with the creepy pedophile angle. Read more...

“In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team.”

Dah dah dah DAH, dah dah DAH! Dah-dah dah dah-dah-dah, DAH dah dah dah DAH!

Oh, sorry, got carried away in a flashback to the days of youth spent tubeside with Hannibal Smith, Howling Mad Murdoch, Faceman and B.A. Baracus and the greatest television program ever. And by “greatest,” I mean “cheesiest,” “most absurd,” and “boasting utterly paint-by-numbers scripts.”

Anybody who remembers the team taking on a town-terrorizing gang of renegade lumberjacks or repeatedly being held captive inside a well-stocked industrial warehouse or seeing a getaway helicopter grind itself into a cliff face then plummet 200 feet to the ground only to have the bad guys pop out and shake their heads muzzily – “Whoa, that was rough, dude.” – will never forget the sublime silliness of the A-Team. Read more...

Lest my chances with supermodel Andrea Roche be ruined forever, Live Bets Direct will not actually be posting any of Paddy Power’s odds on the sportsbook’s novelty bet entitled “Who will win Miss Universe Ireland 2009?”

It is, after all, the order of things. An event, manmade or otherwise, goes down in Ireland or the U.K., the result of which is unknown and therefore fodder for gambling. Paddy Power instantly makes said event “more interesting” with a clever and well-promoted prop bet.

Alas, Ms. Roche just thinks the Paddy is a big meanie; the model was quoted in the Irish Herald as stating “I don’t think it’s very fair on the girls and I know some of them get very upset because at the end of the day, all these bookies are doing is looking at a few photographs and judging the girls purely on their looks and nothing else.

“It’s not nice and it’s not fair,” Andrea complained. Read more...

At first, Bet US’ entertainment futures on “Business: Search Engine Rankings” seem pure folly. As long as the short-term memory of this culture remembers, it’s been Google.com then Yahoo.com, one-two, forever and always.

All that may have changed – and BetUS offers you the bet it might have – in late May with Microsoft’s release of Bing.com, an alternative search engine locked into new Internet Explorer 6 browsers. Even with Microsoft backing the enterprise, though, how popular can a search engine David be against the Googliath? You might be surprised enough to pony up a bit.

A brief look at the quartet of “Search Engine Rankings” proposition bets offered by Bet US. Read more...

Carrie Prejean has been stripped of her Miss California title; couldn’t have happened to a nicer person, eh? Cleverly enough, BetUS bookmakers was able to capitalize on the next obvious question about The Dethroned One – i.e. What’s next? – with a slew of “Celebrity Props: Carrie Prejean” bets for your gambling perusal.

The checklist of props and the concomitant Live Bets Direct take follows.

 •  Carrie Prejean to Appear Naked in a Men’s Magazine
Yes: 5/2
No: 1/4

The Live Bets Direct take: Does this include or not include the semi- or fully nude shots which may or may not be out there? Read more...