Over the last couple of years, the bookies have taken a bit of a beating, when it comes to White Christmas Betting. Both 2009 and 2010 were winter wipeouts as the country got gripped in some of the coldest weather in decades.

2011, so far, has been quite mild, as winters go. Although, it has been rather windy and wet – mostly in the North of the country.

Which is why, after a few inches of snow fell over night, and more expected over the weekend for parts of the Midlands, Wales and the South East. Interesting to note as well that the bookies slashed their odds on White Christmas Betting for 2011.

The are various odds for White Christmas Betting against certain parts of the UK. Below you can view cities throughout the UK and their Yes & No betting if that area will experience snow falling on Christmas Day.

The British Weather Service dictates if snow has fallen on Christmas Day (a single, solitary snowflake is all that is required) and must be witnessed at a specific location.

White Christmas Betting 2011

London – White Christmas Betting
No	1/6	1/6	1/7	1/7
Yes	7/2	4	4	4
Belfast – White Christmas Betting
No		1/6		1/10
Yes		4		5
Liverpool – White Christmas Betting
No		1/6
Yes		4
Aberdeen – White Christmas Betting
No	2/5			2/7
Yes	7/4			9/4
Birmingham – White Christmas Betting
No	1/6	1/6	1/7	1/12
Yes	7/2	4	4	6
Cardiff – White Christmas Betting
No	1/7	1/6		1/12
Yes	4	4		6
Edinburgh – White Christmas Betting
No		2/7	2/7	1/4
Yes		5/2	5/2	5/2
Glasgow – White Christmas Betting
No		2/7		1/7
Yes		5/2		4
Manchester – White Christmas betting
No	1/6	1/6	1/7	1/6
Yes	7/2	4	4	7/2

White Christmas Betting Odds for 2011 Last Updated: 16/12/2011 (Correct at the time of writing.)

Seriously, you can place a bet on just about every occassion to do with the Royal Wedding from what colour is the Queen’s hat (which seems to be a favourite with the betting public) to which song Prince William and Kate Middleton will choose as their First Dance.

Security will be at maximum level for the Royal Wedding with the Police Force in full view as well as security personnel. Extremist and anarchist groups have announced that they will target the big day for the Royal couple. Chief of Operations, Commander Bob Broadhurst, spoke of the threat to the big day itself, “That has been on my radar for a long time,” he said. “I will have different powers at my disposal to ensure that the wedding footprint as it were is kept safe from protest.” However, it seems most likely with the Royal Wedding Betting odds, is that the biggest threat to the day itself is rain being forecasted!

Of course if you haven’t received your invitation to the Royal Wedding yet, then don’t worry because you’re not alone. Ex-Prime Ministers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have also been snubbed a Royal Wedding invite. Something, that has got the left-wing press in a bit of a tizz. As during Prince Charles and Diana’s Royal Wedding all surviving Prime Ministers were invited. However, Prince William’s PR people were quick to add that this Royal Wedding was was not a full state occasion. Therefore, there was no reason to invite any former British Prime Ministers.

So, come the big day itself, no matter if you’re throwing or attending a Royal Wedding party of you’re own or simply enjoying the extra holiday in the pub, raise a glass to Will and Kate and hope that this Royal Wedding has a happy ending.

Selected Royal Wedding Betting Odds

Colour Of Queens Hat will be Yellow Betting Odds : best bet of 11/10 from William Hill
Royal Wedding Aisle Music Betting – Bridal Chorus by Wagner : best bet of 7/4 from Paddy Power
Yes it Will Rain On Wedding Day Betting Odds : best best of 3/10 from Paddy Power
The Queen Will Cry While Kate Walks Down Aisle Betting Odds : best bet of 17/1 from Unibet

There has been a trend over the last few years that we have seen the white fluffy stuff fall round about this time of year. But we’re concerned about betting on it snowing on Christmas Day 2010. For it to qualify as a White Christmas the bookies will look to the British Weather Service to confirm that indeed a solitary snowflake has fallen from the sky to any of the following areas during the 24 hours of Christmas Day :

London, Buckingham Palace; Liverpool, Albert Dock; Aberdeen, Aberdeen FC grounds; Glasgow Cathedral; Edinburgh Castle; Exeter, Met Office; Manchester, Granada Studios; Birmingham, Bullring; Cardiff, Millennium Stadium; Belfast, Aldergrove Airport; Leeds, Elland Road.

The Met Office weather forecast for Christmas Day is sunshine by day, but with severe frost overnight with the South East of England expected to receive either rain or snow.

If you’re interested in placing some free bets on if it will snow on Christmas Day then check out our White Christmas weather betting page for plenty of special offers from a multitude of bookmakers.

Cricket Betting
England resume their second Test against South Africa, on Boxing Day, in Durban. After escaping with a draw from the first Test, England will be looking to go one better and beat South Africa in their own backyard, as long as they don’t dramatically collapse like they did on the first Test.

Premiership Betting
Birmingham v Chelsea, is the early kick off match on Boxing Day (12:45) and with Birmingham one of the in-form teams it will be interesting to see if they can take on the mighty Chelsea. Other games worth mentioning are Man City vs Stoke, where Mancini takes charge of his first game in charge of the Light Blues. Also worth a watch is Liverpool v Wolverhampton. Can Rafa’s promise of a top 4 finish come undone against a bolshy Stoke side?

Scottish Premier League Betting
Big game North of the Border is Dundee Utd v Kilmarnock. After the announcement that Craig Levein has been appointed the new Scotland manager it will be interesting to see if it has a diverse effect on United as they try to maintain their excellent start to the season and aim to split the Old Firm.

Horse Racing Betting
The big race of the day is at Kempton Park for the King George VI Chase with star performer, Kauto Star, looking good in the betting stakes. A host of Boxing Day National Hunt meetings are under threat from the cold snap, with inspections taking place on Christmase Eve and announcements will be made if the racecards are going ahead.

Rugby Union Betting
Worcester v Northampton is the only game from the Guinness Premiership. Northampton will be looking to seal a victory and close the gap on current leaders, Saracens.

As usual you can make it all the more interesting by signing up for a free £25 bet from Free Betting Online.

Have a Merry Christmas everybody!

Betting has got so heated that Ladbrokes and William Hill suspended bets as over 90,000 downloads were registered in just 1 day for Rage Against the Machine. However, with McElderry’s single being released as a CD from today it is expected that he will narrow the gap pretty quickly. Rage Against the Machine is only available to buy as a download.

It all makes for an interesting Christmas Number One betting race and I suspect that come the announcement on the BBC chart show this Sunday, it will be geordie Joe who’ll be smiling with the coveted Number One slot, perhaps.

Christmas Number One 2009 Betting Odds

Joe McElderry	2/9	2/7	Evens	1/4
Rage Against The Machine	3	5/2	10/11	5/2

It seems that the bookies are also going the way of the betting Indian public with many cutting odds on the film and it taking the mantle of pre-Oscars favourite. Question is, with all this heat surrounding Slumdog, has the media built-up a frenzy over the film and do favourites ever lose at the Oscars.
Answer to both those questions is yes! Slumdog is a great film and it deserves all the plaudits that comes its way, however, there are a large section in India that deplore that the main theme of Slumdog depicts India as a third-world country.

No matter the outcome, the film has seen the stock worth rise of both Director Danny Boyle and also leading actor Dev Patel. As the film rose on the success of critical acclaim both in Canada and America allowing the film to have nationwide screenings both in the states and here in Britain. When you consider that it was a ‘straight to DVD’ film and has since now reached the epic heights of becoming Best Picture at the Oscars then you realise that the films underdog storyline is also very true of the film itself.

For a kick-off, who’s going to play him in the blockbuster film of his life? Will Smith is the favourite at 6/4 but I’d think carefully about Denzel Washington at 4/1 because he doesn’t half look like our Bazza. For those who prefer better odds, try OJ Simpson at 100/1. Continuing with the film theme, how many Oscar winners will mention him? 7/4 says none will but you can get a healthy 7/2 that one or two will. More than five and you’re looking at 4/1.

And what’s he going to do first? Pull out of Iraq at 2/5 or legalise marijuana at 12/1? What will his approval rating be after a year? Paddy Power suggests 50-60% as the favourite, at 7/4, but if you reckon he’ll bomb, then you can get 20/1 on 20%. His impeachment in the first term is priced at 33/1 and a new addition to the family is calculated at an optimistic 8/1. Resignation is deemed an outside chance, at least in bookmaker’s eyes, at 28/1.

Spin-offs include whether or not his daughters will ever be President and which position of prominence will next be occupied by a black man. The Pope rides high at 7/4 while you can get 9/4 on James Bond, 33/1 on Batman, 100/1 on the next leader of the BNP and a whopping 250/1 on the British Monarchy.

If you feel lucky and want to place a bet on Barack Obama then try our free £20.00 bet offers from Free Betting Online.

Some years there are two or three films worthy of contention and each award ceremony will select a film that is felt best promotes it’s own identity – The Baftas will favour a film that has great artistic depth while the Oscars seeks to reward work of exalted moral message – thus reflecting the variation in sophistication of the two countries. The Golden Globes? Who knows what they stand for? Fifty foreign journalists vote for these awards while six thousand industry professionals vote for each of the UK and US prizes.

Every now and again, however, a film comes along that makes all this irrelevant and 2009 is one of those years. ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, a film by ‘Trainspotting’ director, Danny Boyle has captured the market and will clean-up at all award shows this year. Priced at 1/3 across the board, there is no competition. The film even gave Danny Boyle Best Director over the likes of Ron Howard and Sam Mendes at the Globes, much to everyone’s amazement.

The other certainty is that Kate Winslett will win Best Actress everywhere. Her performances in ‘Revolutionary Road’ and ‘The Reader’ gave her two gongs, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, at the Globes although she is up against herself at the Baftas, the Brits having decided that she is the lead in both films. Either way she will win . . . all Bafta betting fans have to decide is for which film. Less certain, and therefore yielding decent odds, are Mickey Rourke for Best Actor and Wall-E for best animation.

Suddenly the clouds lift to be replaced with the anticipation of what will unfold. What a year it promises to be. While the battle to the top of the football tables goes on, will Lewis Hamilton do it again and can Andy Murray win his first Grand Slam? There’s the Six Nations and the Cheltenham Gold Cup just round the corner and soon spring will come and with it the Masters at Augusta and the return of the Tiger. Over the summer there will be Ascot and Wimbledon, the Open Championship, Mark Haye taking on the Klitschko brothers and a whole lot more. Will we trash a weakened Aussie side in the Ashes and how will the World Cup tables turn out?

And as if that isn’t enough there’s the Oscars and the Baftas, and all the TV stuff such as Big Brother and the return of Hell’s Kitchen, a whole new X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing, the Eurovision Song Contest, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s search for an, as yet, unknown star and I’m a Celebrity . . . Get me out of Here. And if you still need more, check out William Hill’s amazing new range of one-off celebrity and TV specials. So . . . in wishing all my fellow online betting enthusiasts a Happy New Year, I think we can all agree – there are plenty of reasons why it will be.

One lesson to be learned from this is to bar what might be foreseen as charming but ‘joke’ contenders from future series of the show. Either’Strictly’ is a serious opportunity for keen amateurs to seize a unique opportunity to develop their latent skills as dancers or it is simply Saturday night entertainment and not to be taken too seriously. Clearly, the outrage and controversy stirred up by the John Sergeant issue has demonstrated that it is the former rather than the latter and future contestant recruitment must take this into account.

It only costs 15p to call the show and vote from a BT landline so it is unlikely that the furore caused by this latest teacup storm is about money. Voters registered their approval for either a favoured contestant or the best dance of the night on Saturday and this is where the problem lies. The votes will be carried over to next week and those who voted for their favourite will have little problem with this. The voters most attuned to the true ethos of the show, however, are those who acknowledged the best dance of the night and they have just cause for complaint. Their vote will now be carried over to be attributed to a dancer who might not produce the best performance on the night of the final. This goes against the grain of Strictly Come Dancing and undermines its authenticity in providing an environment for a true and accurate assessment of the best overall dancer on the show. There may well be a contender, this coming Saturday, who produces a blistering performance, only to lose on the basis of last weeks vote. This will cause genuine dismay and outrage and must surely be wrong.