Sports Personality of the Year Latest Odds

[Iggle Piggle]

Swan is 6th favourite between 12 & 20/1.

Doesn't look like he will be winning it then !

Qatar were 33-1 to win the World Cup in 2022 not so long ago. England were odds on to win it in 2018. The last 3 favourites for this have been Jenson Button, Rebecca Adlington and Darren Clarke. None of them have won. Bookies price isn't always an indicator of chance.

In the abscence of anyone outstanding Swann is a cracking price. Shame the Ashes aren't on the beeb as that would probably tip the balance in his favour. I've already had a few quid.

 

[Cecil]

Qatar were 33-1 to win the World Cup in 2022 not so long ago. England were odds on to win it in 2018. The last 3 favourites for this have been Jenson Button, Rebecca Adlington and Darren Clarke. None of them have won. Bookies price isn't always an indicator of chance.

In the abscence of anyone outstanding Swann is a cracking price. Shame the Ashes aren't on the beeb as that would probably tip the balance in his favour. I've already had a few quid.

I am on at 33/1 about 4 weeks ago, hence the interest !

 

[Iggle Piggle]

I am on at 33/1 about 4 weeks ago, hence the interest !

19-1 now on Betfair.

I'm a jump racing fan but Tony McCoy is as dull as dishwater and although he has been top jockey for as long as I can remember he wouldn't be if Ruby Walsh had rode full time in the UK.

Swann has won the 20-20 and has barely had a bad session let alone a match all year. And he does have a personality as well as a lost cat.

 

[Mtoto]

Very light list this year. this could go to anyone. It's surprising how our 3 major sports ( Footy, Cricketball and Eggchasing) can only contribute 1 contender between them.

And, where's Bob Nudd ?

Three major *team* sports perhaps. Racing gets almost as many people through the turnstiles each year as cricket, rugby league and rugby union combined.

Only have 2005 figures to hand: Football 38m, Racing 5.9m, Greyhounds 3.8m, Rugby Union 3.2m, Cricket 2.1m, Rugby League 1.9m. (Deloitte, Economic Impact of British Racing).

Believe it was also suggested in the same report that British racing alone has broadly the same economic
impact as global cricket. Wouldn't surprise me if so, remember reading in Sports Illustrated once that US racing generates more cash each year than the NBA, though most Americans are only dimly aware it exists.

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

Three major *team* sports perhaps. Racing gets almost as many people through the turnstiles each year as cricket, rugby league and rugby union combined.

Only have 2005 figures to hand: Football 38m, Racing 5.9m, Greyhounds 3.8m, Rugby Union 3.2m, Cricket 2.1m, Rugby League 1.9m. (Deloitte, Economic Impact of British Racing).

Believe it was also suggested in the same report that British racing alone has broadly the same economic
impact as global cricket. Wouldn't surprise me if so, remember reading in Sports Illustrated once that US racing generates more cash each year than the NBA, though most Americans are only dimly aware it exists.

Only because of all the betting. Wonder how many would show up if you couldn't bet on it?

 

[16bha]

Lee Westwood or Graeme Swann

 

[Mtoto]

Only because of all the betting. Wonder how many would show up if you couldn't bet on it?

But you can, so it's a pointless question.
Betting is an important part of racing for sure, but far from the only one. It just adds to the fun.

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

But you can, so it's a pointless question.
Betting is an important part of racing for sure, but far from the only one. It just adds to the fun.

The point is though that you can't treat it in the same category as other sports. The vast majority of races are provided so that betting can take place on them up and down the land and across the world, not so people can enjoy watching them at the track.

Can you imagine a football match being arranged purely so that people can bet on them?

 

[Sheebo]

I am on at 33/1 about 4 weeks ago, hence the interest !

50p each way was it?

Swanny was CLASS in the last test and his video diarys on the ECB site are CLASS also.

 

[Mtoto]

The point is though that you can't treat it in the same category as other sports. The vast majority of races are provided so that betting can take place on them up and down the land and across the world, not so people can enjoy watching them at the track.

Can you imagine a football match being arranged purely so that people can bet on them?

In Italy perhaps?

It's true that betting is more closely entwined with racing than any other sport, but it will always be a factor in any sport with enough of an audience to form two opinions and a market. The Premier League makes a fortune from selling picture rights around the world, and one of the main reasons the games are so popular with millions of people who will never go near Old Trafford or White Hart Lane is that they like to bet on them.

Asian handicap betting, incidentally, has long been the speciality of a certain Mr Bloom, and thus a contributor (arguably a key contributor in fact) to our new stadium and table-topping team.

 

[simmo]

Don't think Swann will win it, unless he has an absolute stormer in the Perth Test and we win in 4 days. Looking at the list I would say Westwood or McDowell. But maybe AP (or even Phil the Power) just for his lifetime acheivemants a la Giggs

 

[Mtoto]

Not sure that it's quite as relevant as, say, the Golden Globes to the Oscars, but AP McCoy has just become the first jockey to be named Sportsman of the Year by the Sports Journalists' Association in its 63-year history.

 

[cunning fergus]

Swann definitely has the potential to win, after all he has 100K followers on Twitter so should do well.

One blot on his claim though is that he will face drink driving charges in February, a story which came out in the press today.

I dare say he has not mentioned that on twitter!

As for McCoy whilst he is dull, that is a consequence of his total commitment and dedication to his sport. This is a man who broke his back in 2008 yet managed to get fit and back on a horse to win Champion Jockey award the same year.

Regardless of whether you consider Horse Racing to be a sport, the fact is jump jockeys like McCoy put themselves in the kind of danger that other sportsmen and women couldn't begin to understand (with possible exception of boxers).

The fact that he has been so completely dominant in the lkast 15 years is not a consequence of getting better rides, for that reason alone he deserves to win imo.

One last point, it is not unusual to recognise the career of a sportsman/woman in SPOTY, just thinking of Giggs last year and Calzaghe in 2008.