Increase In Novelty Betting Noted

Founder of gambling service Easyodds claims that competitive Oscar betting markets receive lots of interest among punters.

Betting on the Oscars gets more popular "year-on-year", but 2008 is not necessarily going to be a "dramatic year" in this regard.

That is the view of David Gross, founder of Easyodds, an odds comparison service for sports matches and other events.

Mr Goss claims that interest in this kind of betting has grown as the internet has developed. For example, there was no opportunity to gamble on the Oscars via the internet ten years ago.

"Novelty events of this kind have become a lot bigger in recent years. It tends to depend on the level of interest," he states.

There is often "a lot of interest" on competitive bets when there is not a strong favourite in the market, the expert adds.

Paddy Power recently opened a book on Batman film The Dark Knight in relation to the Oscars.

This week, the late Heath Ledger was 1-25 to be nominated and 8-13 to win the Best Supporting Actor accolade for his portrayal of The Joker.