Arguably X Factor has managed to recover from the outrage and disaffection caused by the early expulsion of Laura and Diana and the show ended on Saturday with Alexandra crowned as this years winner. Doubtless the debacle caused by the loss of a fourth contender in the semi finals of Strictly Come Dancing will also be ironed out and forgotten in the final this coming Saturday. The absence of John Sergeant, who voluntarily retired for the show a couple of weeks ago, has brought a voting anomaly to light and forced the programmes producers to allow all three remaining semi-finalists free passage to the final.

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Following the terrible events in Mumbai a couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog for these pages which suggested that it would be a mistake for the England cricket team to return to India. The danger was too great and concentration, by all the players, on the matches would be impossible. My thinking was based on the worrying build-up of the Indian army on the Pakistan border and the uncertainty that this atrocity was an isolated incident. Well, fellow Test Cricket betting fans, I was wrong. Our cricketers have returned and cricket is now better for it. The first match is being played as though nothing had happened and the dark forces of terrorism have been shown their impotence in their efforts to make any serious impact on the way our life is conducted in the free world.

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The headlines being written about Formula One and Motor Racing these last few days have not been kind to the image of the sport. The withdrawl of Honda from the competition, due to the economic downturn in the car manufacturing industry, had the sport splattered all over the front pages of the newspapers for all the wrong reasons. The obscene amount of money required to take a team through a season, estimated around $250 million, may yet force other car manufacturers to rethink the necessity of having their name associated with the Formula One brand.

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BBC Sports personality of the Year betting, X Factor betting and Strictly Come Dancing betting – the one thing all these TV show contests have in common is the unpredictability of the public vote. Through the years, online betting fans have perhaps become overly influenced by the betting odds and presumed that the bookies favourite was usually a dead cert to win. But just look at the last few weeks – hot faves, Laura and Diana have been turfed off the X Factor, Rebecca Adlington has unseated front-runner, Lewis Hamilton on the BBC Sports Personality Stakes and now Austin Healey, the judge’s red hot darling from day one on Strictly, has been given his marching orders.

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Is it possible for an artist to reach the No 1 position in the charts this Christmas time and NOT be the X-Factor winner? Judging previous form it looks highly doubtful. The last 3 years has seen the singing contest, X-Factor, claim the Christmas No 1 position. In 2004, we had the Band Aid upgrade take the title and you need to go back to 2003 with Michael Andrews remake of ‘Mad World’ for the last real competitive year when the Christmas No 1 betting was an open race.

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Only six days to go until the public decide the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, and all of a sudden, everything has changed. Lewis Hamilton, for ages the full-on 1/2 favourite to be crowned after securing the Formula 1 Driver’s World Championship in Brazil last month has drifted out to 6/4. Rebecca Adlington, twice a gold medallist in the 2008 Beijing Olympics has elbowed him out of the way to become 5/6 favourite with online bookies and making BBC Sports Personality of the Year betting fans scratch their heads in alarm at this surprising turnaround.

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Last week I predicted that the final four in this year’s ‘I’m A Celebrity – Get Me Out Of Here’ would be Esther Rantzen, George Takei, Joe Swash and Martina Navratilova. This was before Esther finally cracked over the fire incident and health and safety issues and revealed her true character. My prediction also preceded David Van Day’s bizarre but funny antics after the dreadful, false-bosomed Nicola was ejected. Clearly the viewers were less than impressed with Esther and more than bemused with the hugely entertaining David.

Picture Courtesy of celebrity.itv.com

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Will it be a White Christmas this 2008? Well according to the weathermen and the bookies there is a very likely chance it will happen. But where? Betting on the weather is a favourite pastime in the UK and none-more-so than at Christmas time. Everybody wants the white fluffy stuff to fall on Christmas Day, it makes things even more special. It’s time to have a ponder and guess which major city in the UK will have snow this Christmas.

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Martin Johnson, the England Rugby Union team manager, is said to be denying that our team has been handed a fairly kind draw for the 2011 Rugby Union World Cup in New Zealand. Argentina could be a threat and the encounter with Scotland will be ‘hell of a game’, he says. Nice to see you expressing such confidence, Martin. Rugby Union betting fans take note – even if England ends up top of their group, they face New Zealand in their quarter-final where they will doubtless be used for floor cleaning purposes.

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This Saturday, things start getting tasty on ITV1 as we get to the semi final round of X-Factor 2008. Not that things have been quiet in previous rounds. We’ve seen judges fall out with the contestants over song choices, judges fall out with each other and the voting system go into melt down as potentially the best voices in the competition fail to make it through. So whom are we left with and what are there X-Factor semi final betting chances of winning the competition?

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