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How about a little currency speculation? No, no high-tech software solutions, nor financial expertise, are necessary to play this game, and the variables are in fact reduced to one. We’re talking another wacky Paddy Power novelty bet here, namely “AUD versus the EUR on 31st December 2009?”

Congratulations, Alexander Rybak and Norway for taking the 2009 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest convincingly in completing the “Fairy Tale.” Kudos also go out to the surprising Yohanna of Iceland, who, we learn upon release of the full Eurovision results, not only placed second overall but also took the first semifinal over powerhouse Hadise of Turkey.

Ready for part two of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, the fantastic competition wonderfully described by one anonymous news scribe “the annual extravaganza of music and camp”? Right, then, LiveBetsDirect.com presents another round of its fearless predictions!

Finally, there is the mystery of prop betting on the Bosnia and Herzegovina entry, “Bistra Voda” by Regina. Two months ago, most bookmakers were offering odds of 25/1 on Regina taking Eurovision 2009 outright. Now Bosnia and Herzegovina’s chances’re down to 8/1 at Intertops – and most others offer comparable numbers – putting the entry at third to take the whole enchilada and the favorite to best the field tonight.

As far as the Os Man’s concerned, this one’s going to come down to Melissa Rycroft and Gilles Marini, even though Johnson is an world-class artistic gymnast and the Os Man realizes that ever since Emmitt Smith nailed the debut season should the token jock ever be counted out.

Paddy Power’s “Highest-ranking social website by 2011″ prop bet pits five ’sites against one another, but has the bookmaker unwittingly posted a super-easy wager?

What sort of Payback will Mel Gibson be expected to pony up to estranged spouse Robyn Denise Moore Gibson in divorce proceedings? PaddyPower’s proposition bet entitled “How much will Mel’s wife get?” reckons the bidding will probably start at around $200 million

If this one isn’t tougher than the race for the 2012 bid in which London, Madrid, Paris, New York and Moscow went down to the PR wire with no clear favorite, the 2016 contest has got to be close in excruciating difficulty for the punter.

Yesterday, Live Bets Direct had a look at some of the bookmakers’ favorites to take 2009’s edition of the Eurovision Song Contest; today, a consideration of contenders slightly further down the table at those entries thought to be viable Top 10 finishers.

While it may be tempting to consider backing the Labour Party as a 7/2 longshot – after all, it might not take a whole lot of Conservative skullduggery to produce a majority Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition in Parliament – the Conservative lead is pretty massive at present.