The Most Popular Christmas Bets
As well as a wide range of Christmas and New Year bets, the conclusion of many of the most popular reality television shows means that even more bets are being placed on less traditional topics.
Paddy Power is home to Europe's biggest novelty betting book. Marc Warren, a representative of the Irish bookmaker, reveals: "Christmas is always a busy time, we offer bets as diverse as what the weather's going to be like on Christmas day to reality TV to anything that’s topical in the news."
With this in mind, we've spoken to the bookmakers and online casino operators that we work to about the most popular Xmas novelty bets. So without further ado, here are the 5 Most Popular Christmas Bets.
5. Award Winners
Unsurprisingly, the end of the year brings plenty of end of year annual awards. These awards vary in size and popularity but recognise everything from musicians to athletes and just about everything in-between.
Most commonly bet on is the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award which takes place just three days before Christmas on December 22. However December isn't the only time that people can bet on award ceremonies. Events such as the Oscars, the Brits, the Nobel Prizes and many more take place all year round.
4. Most Popular Presents
With present buying playing such a large role in Christmas these days, it was only a matter of time before people started betting on what presents people were going to buy and receive.
As a result most popular present bets were born with a number of different markets available on this topic. One of the biggest of these markets is one which offers most popular toy bets allowing people to wager on a selection of gifts such as Lego, Fireman Sam and this year's favourite the LeapPad Explorer.
3. Christmas Number 1
The Christmas number 1 is always a big deal to artists, those in the industry and keen music followers. However the ability to bet on it has broadened its appeal to those in the know and looking for some great odds.
Although traditionally referring to the music charts, Christmas number 1 bets can now be applied to much more including the DVD chart, download chart and gaming charts.
2. Reality TV
X Factor, I'm a Celebrity, Strictly Come Dancing, The Voice, X Factor USA. To some - must watch TV, to others – annoying and pointless, but to everyone reality TV shows make up a whole host of additional novelty betting opportunities.
In fact, reality TV betting is now so common place that that bookmakers are beginning to spend much more time considering the odds.
Simon Clare of Coral bookmakers explained: "Now people are taking it [reality TV betting] a lot more seriously and it has become a bigger betting event than a lot of sports, including snooker and darts."
1. Weather
The weather is usually one of the most boring conversation topics going. However, place a wager on it and it becomes a darn sight more exciting. Of-course around this time year it's all about White Christmas bets – wagers questioning whether or not it will snow on Christmas day.
Ladbrokes' Jessica Bridge reveals: "I am always staggered by the amount of people that bet on the weather. Personally to me it seems like such a funny genre to bet on but punters love it!"
"This year we have seen a huge flurry of bets on a White Christmas, as soon as talk of the Big Freeze set in the mild temperatures of November were soon forgotten and punters are now piling into a White Christmas."
But even this most simple of bets can be contentious. Bookmakers' rules on paying out tend to vary with some stumping up the cash if there's snowfall while others require snow to settle on the ground. Despite this, the weather remains a favourite betting subject and is therefore the most popular Christmas novelty bet.
