Do They Know It’s Christmas Time At All?

READ MORE: Celebrity Betting, Choirboys, Paddy Power, UK Christmas Single, Westlife, William Hill

Every year Christmas seems to come earlier. In fact, this year, we noticed the line for Santa Claus at Macy’s beginning to form during Labor Day weekend. And in the UK, Christmas starts even earlier. Or at least the battle for UK’s number one Christmas single. Yes, apparently this is as big a deal in the UK, which automatically results in punting lines. Yes, both Paddy Power and William Hill have a giant list of potential number one Christmas singles to bet on. Paddy Power favors boyband Westlife and their single “When You Tell Me That You Love Me” a duet with cracked out Diana Ross, which is getting 2/1 odds. William Hill also loves Westlife, but also is offering 12/1 odds on rival boy band, the Choirboys, who are being hailed as the Backstreet Boys of choir music. They will release a cover of Eric Clapton’s “Tears of Heaven” to the UK charts because nothing gets people in the holiday spirit more than a song about a small boy falling out of a 50-story New York City apartment window and plummeting to his death.

UK Christmas Single [PaddyPower]
Christmas No.1 2005 [WilliamHill]
Choirboys and Westlife Set For Christmas Battle [ManchesterOnline]

William Hill Poker: Today Is Our Independence Day

READ MORE: Online Poker, Poker, William Hill

The Boys at William Hill in England are really asking for it this time. Their new marketing campaign, upon their rollout to American players reads, “We’re serious about poker. Are you?” Is this a challenge? Are they calling us out? Can we get Xuyen Pham’s (pictured, on the right naturally) phone number? Unlikely, but WillHill is looking to crown an international King of Poker. Poker Player Newspaper has the story:

The field will consist of 48 international poker professionals there by invitation. Only eight online qualifiers will be included in the tournament. These players qualify through online satellites currently being conducted at WilliamHillPoker.com through September 18th.

The concept and design of The Grand Prix of Poker is aimed at rewarding the best player, rather than the “blessed” player. Hence, it’s moved away from traditional blind structures. In The Grand Prix, the blinds are more incremental, the increases smaller; thus minimizing the distortion to the natural balance between skill and luck… The best TV production team in the UK will film the tournament action for broadcast.

There are certainly those among us who have reason to hand the Brits their asses online (frigging Hugh Grant movies), and now we’ll get our shot. USA! USA!

Brits Challenge Yanks to Poker [PokerPlayerNewspaper]
William Hill Poker

The Rake: Rathergate, Norman Chad, and Tamagotchi Trouble

READ MORE: Poker, William Hill

· CBS’ WSOP poker reporter Ken Adams tattles on a PokerStars chat jackass. Couldn’t take chant of “Rathergate! Rathergate!” [CBSNews]
· 2+2 reader asks when he should look to move up in levels at the virtual poker tables. Surprisingly, it seems like a rational discussion. [PokerFilter]
· For about three months a year, Norman Chad becomes a hot property pseudo-celebrity. In the off-season, he keeps sharp by annoying patrons every day at a Los Angeles bar with his glib snarks to no one in particular. [Newsday]
· The same Aussie crusader who has rallied against video poker is now trying to get the latest Tamagotchi toy banned because it encourages kids to gamble. When your eight year-old’s virtual pet is pushing him all-in, then you know poker has really caught on. [News.com.au]
· It was only a matter of time… Strip poker, filmed at Hedonism II in Jamaica coming to pay-per-view. [PokerNews]
· WilliamHill, the UK “punting” site, is opening up to US poker players. Predominantly British player base means games are generally soft, unflappably polite. [Poker Player Newspaper]
· So coaching a Little League team is just like “an intense game of Texas Hold ‘Em poker?” Dang, that analogy can be used for anything! [Longview Daily News]

Big Brother Betting: Will Hill No Friend of Science

READ MORE: Big Brother, Reality TV Show Betting, Science, William Hill

As we’d previously stated, Europe’s fascination with Big Brother 6 is quite amusing. Yes, we know the American version has its followers as well, but we’re talking some major lunacy over this year’s version. It’s not like Americans go that crazy for reality shows. Well, nevermind.

Britty booksters William Hill report one way traffic in the eviction market this week and following a succession of four figure bets Science is now the 4/11 favorite to go with Orlaith priced at 2/1. And, amazingly, online bookmakers are happy about the eviction and wouldn’t mind losing money because apparently Science is such a jerk-off:

“It looks like goodbye and I must say good riddance to Science, this is one market that I would not like to see an upset on and can live with losing some money” said Hills spokesman Rupert Adams.

What did he do? Did he slap a bitch? Did he stick his finger in peanut butter? Did he lie about his dead grandmother? What can be that bad to make a bookie want to lose his money. Oh. According to this story, he… got into heated and emotional shouting matches with a female castmate.

Christ.

Wiliam Hill Report One Way Traffic for Eviction [Readabet]
Big Brother Housemate Orlaith Wants Out [RTE Guide]
Science To Be Evicted Tonight [HecklerSpray]