Festive Betting / Chicken Dinner / 04 December 2007 /

Chicken Dinner talk Christmas Number One, top soap, most sold video game and Christmas day snow betting

Betfair: year end novelty markets

For those surprised to find something left in their pocket after fulfilling their seasonal financial responsibilities, and for those who are still looking for a way to meet those demands, here come Britain's favourite Christmas punts to provide a solution.

CHRISTMAS NUMBER ONE

The unveiling of the nativity chart topper isn't surrounded by anything like the drama of the past, but record companies still take it seriously even if the public tired of it decades ago. The great minds behind X Factor take it most seriously of all, which is why they've had the last two Christmas number ones (Shayne Ward in 2005 and Leona Lewis last year.) The X Factor has made all remaining contestants record a version of Whitney Houston and Maria Carey's When You Believe in order to grab top spot and is 1.17 on Betfair to win. You can get 4.3 on any other artist, and Sugababes (who've hit the top with 33% of their singles), Soulja Boy (whose Crank That stayed at Number One for seven weeks in the US) and novelty offering Shaun the Sheep are in with a shout, but not much of one.

TOP TV SOAP BY RATINGS

EastEnders was the most-watched soap on Christmas Day in both 2005 and 2006, but it's had a difficult year since being snubbed by the Royal Television Society Awards in March and is at [2.5] with Betfair to be top of the soaps on Christmas Day.
In the past week Coronation Street has out-performed both Emmerdale [2.5] and EastEnders when all three soaps were scheduled at the same time (averaging 10.9 million viewers a night compared to 10.1 million for EastEnders and 7.9 million for Emmerdale), which is why the Manchester soap [1.11] is so strongly fancied to take the festive honours this time round.

TOP VIDEO GAME BY SALES

Living rooms the length and breadth of the country will be one lank-haired adolescent light come the evening of Christmas Day as the nation's assorted computer nerds scuttle off to their damp, dingy bedrooms to begin their quest to complete the latest video game before the year is out.
Betfair currently sees the battle for top-selling Christmas game as a three-way duel between racing game Need For Speed ProStreet [1.21], historical adventure Assassin's Creed [1.41] and movie spin-off The Simpsons Game [2.0].

Elsewhere you can get [5.0] on Call of Duty 4 and FIFA 08, and the hugely popular Halo 3 is down at [11.0].

WHITE CHRISTMAS

All that is required for a white christmas to be declared is for a single snowflake to fall in a certain spot in any given city. A general rule of thumb is that the further north you go, the greater the chances of a white christmas. Lerwick in the Shetland Islands has seen snow on 32% of christmases since 1950, and Betfair is offering [5.0] on Edinburgh, [4.0] on Glasgow and [4.1] on Manchester.

London has seen snow on 13% of Christmases since 1950, and none since 1999. The last white christmas in London was recorded in 1999. According to the Met Office "It is too early to specify whether Christmas Day this year will be white or not. Indications up until the middle of the month maintain a changeable theme with spells of wind and rain at times." If you really must, you can get on London at [8.0].

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