BBC Sports Personality Of The Year / Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco / 08 September 2008 / Leave a comment

As Andy Murray gets the biggest match of his career under way at tonight's US Open final, punters on Betfair's BBC Sports Personality Of The Year market will be watching events closely.

Murray is currently the [4.5] second-favourite in the market behind double Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington at [3.25] and just ahead of Chris Hoy and Lewis Hamilton (both at [5.0]) in the betting of what is the most open race for the coveted BBC award in years.

The sixth seed is available at [2.84] to beat four-time US Open winner Roger Federer in tonight's match but those confident of a Murray win may prefer to back the Scot in the Sports Personality market at the bigger price of [4.5], as victory at Flushing Meadows would surely put him in pole position to pick up the award in late December.

One Betfair customer firmly in the Federer camp tonight will be the one who managed to secure odds of [1000] for £2 on Rebecca Adlington to win SPOTY before her double success in Beijing, as a successful defence of Federer's US Open title would probably leave Adlington's status as the market jolly intact.

Betfair Spokesman James Pacheco said: "Murray is currently the [4.5] second-favourite on Betfair to win SPOTY but a win tonight in the US Open final could well make him an odds-on jolly in the market, given the magnitude of the achievement. A soothsayer of a Betfair customer managed to secure odds of 999-1 on Rebecca Adlington before her two gold medals in Beijing and I'm guessing he or she will be praying for no Murray-instigated derailments of the Fed Express tonight"

BBC Sports Personality Of The Year Award - Betfair bet: [3.2] Rebecca Adlington, [4.5] Andy Murray, [5.0] Lewis Hamilton, [5.0] Chris Hoy, [50.0] Ben Ainslie, [140.0] Victoria Pendleton.