Archive for December 8th, 2008

Betting on a White Christmas?

Snow for Christmas? Really?While some dream of having a white Christmas, I’d much prefer a warm, but not hot, sunny day. Let’s go for 24 to 28 degrees C with no wind – just right for a leisurely stroll along the beach after a no doubt enormous Christmas feast. (Sounds unlikely? Check out Kapiti Coast New Zealand on Google Earth and you’ll see why it sounds THE plan…’cos that’s where I’ll be!)

Anyway, for those of you in the UK, bookmakers like Paddy Power and Ladbrokes are apparently “scurrying to cut odds on it as temperatures dip across the United Kingdom”.

On Wednesday, The Guardian reported that some bookmakers feared they would lose £1 million if the odds weren’t changed. The newspaper said Ladbrokes slashed the odds of having a snow-piled Christmas in London from 7-to-1 to 11-to-4 and 3-to-1. As this blog was posted the odds were at 5/1, so we think this report is pretty much bollocks – just hype to get you to have a flutter on the coolest of betting markets, so to speak.

Click to visit Ladbrokes to check out this White Christmas interactive betting toolCheck out the cool White Christmas betting interactive map onsite at Ladbrokes (left). It’s got lots of facts and figures and suggests that the bookies should not really be sweating it too hard…

Christmas Day snow? – Here’s Laddies definition of what it would take to be deemed “snowing at Christmas (in this instance in your postcode)”: A snowflake, sleet or a snow grain must be officially* have been recorded to have fallen within your postcode area (1st two digits) during the 24 hours of Christmas Day. Parts of any postcode +250 metres above mean sea level do not count for this bet. Lying snow, hail or ice pellets do not count for this bet. *British Weather Services will verify all bets.

Here’s what our favourite Irish bookie had to say:

Paddy Power’s Cold Comfort – White Christmas Betting

If Paddy’s great-great-great-grandfather was unfortunate to be offering odds on ye Olde White Christmas down in ye Olde Betting Shoppe way back in the early half of the 18th Century, then more than likely the family would be something less risky – like shark fishing or grenade juggling – these days. That’s because – after an uncharacteristic bout of research – we discovered that according to the Met Office, the heyday for White Christmases was between 1550 and 1850 when the Northern Hemisphere “was in the grip of a ‘Little Ice Age'” which is like the a normal ice age, but with cuter woolly mammoths. After the recent spell of cold weather, could banking on a White Christmas in London @ 4/1 be an Ice little earner?

White Christmas Betting*
New York     6 – 4 
Dublin           3 – 1 
London         4 – 1

For more on the online sportsbooks in this blog post check out the following:
>>Review of Ladbrokes Bookmaker
>>Review of Paddy Power Bookmaker

 

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