Quote:
Originally Posted by chuff me dizzy
My hubby works in a bookies, it takes a LOT more than £1000 to change the odds that much
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That's true but it's also more complicated than that, the size of the bets makes a difference not just the overall total.
e.g. 100 x £1000 bets on a housemate is much more likely to alter the odds than 10000 x £10 bets... even though the total money staked in each scenario is £100,000.
The reason being that a "serious" bet of £1000 will catch the bookmakers attention (the actual bookmakers, the people sitting in London playing with the odds) whereas a "casual" bet of £10 means much less, even if there are a tonne of them.
A small £10 bet is just a hopeful "throwaway" flutter that someone might place just because they like the person or fancy a bet at bigger odds... whereas a £1000 (or bigger) bet on a selection with long odds suggests that whoever is placing the bet really thinks there is a good chance of a win. In horse racing it can suggest insider / trainer knowledge (e.g. info has leaked that the favourite for that race has been erratic in training recently).
For a show like Big Brother, big bets being placed on an outsider could suggest that there's a campaign going on that might affect the outcome, or people have gotten wind of events in the house that are likely to sway opinion but haven't been aired on television yet. In this case, I'd say the "secret room" task has played a big part in prompting an increase in Helen to Win bets and the corresponding plummeting odds.
Even just thinking back to last year... Dexter and Gina's popularity soared when they were in the secret room. And on final week...