TV Betting Markets – What Can You Bet On?

There’s a vast number of markets to play that we’d consider ‘Novelty’ or ‘Betting Specials’ and they can present a view of events from a betting perspective.

Here’s our ultimate to TV and movie betting markets

TV Show Betting Guide

The majority of betting apps now have a section for TV Show betting. The vast majority of these are for reality TV shows rather than anything that is pre-recorded. This is mainly due to a betting scandal on the Great British Bake Off – people who worked on the show and their families and friends all bet on the Bake Off winner when they already knew the result. (Full story here)

We often see Bake Off betting odds being shown on bookmakers’ blogs. These are just where they price the market up for fun, or for a bit of PR. This is often done on other TV shows as well. They do love pricing up a “whodunit” market when someone is murdered in a soap opera!

TV Betting Markets

We’ll start with TV and film markets that are running all the time. Most of these markets have small maximum bet amounts and these are more for fun bets than serious value betting. 

Eurovision Song Contest

While also a major real-life event we’re placing Eurovision in with the television as let’s face it, that’s how we all watch it.

The winner of Eurovision is always a popular betting market and will usually have a few other specials such as ‘Britain to receive no points’ or Over/Under points markets.

Over the years we have seen Europvison betting become more popular. There are more markets than ever including betting on the exact number of points Britain will get. There is usually a maximum bet amount in this market of around £25 as it is seen as a fun/ novelty market.

 Soap Opera Betting

The soaps also provide the novelty market with some odds across the year. They’ll generally vary depending on the storyline but usually crop up around whodunnits.

Popular soaps we have seen betting markets for –

• Coronation Street
• Eastenders
• Emmerdale
• Hollyoaks

The markets might be who is the father of the child, who was the murderer, or similar. In many cases, these are priced up for fun use on social media as they are aware the cast and crew always know the outcome. 

The limits on these markets are usually £5 – £10.

The Voice & X-Factor Betting

We have grouped these two shows together as, in our opinion, the betting markets are almost identical when it gets to live shows.

The Voice and X-Factor betting has grown in popularity over the years with avid fans thinking they can predict the winners or who will get voted off that week. In the early shows, there is a wide market for who will win. They also usually price up who the winning judge will be, even before they get allocated a group.

Once the live shows begin they have the “To be eliminated” market, where you can bet on who you think, will get sent home that week. They also have the same markets for the winners and the top judge. The markets are suspended once the live show starts and are usually priced up again within 5 minutes of the show finishing. The same thing will happen for the results show.

Of course on all talent shows where competitors are voted off there’s a market, including the likes of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, Dancing on Ice, and Big Brother.

Strictly Come Dancing Betting Markets

Strictly usually has two markets on offer. Who will win, and who will go home? The betting markets get priced up once all the celebrities have been announced.

The betting always runs up to the live show starting. The markets are then suspended from the start of the live show through to the end of Sunday night’s results. If you don’t know this already – The results are filmed later on Saturday night and just broadcast on Sunday night. As the whole cast, crew and audience know in advance who goes home you cannot bet on it once the show has started.

Here is an example of how a previous year’s Strictly Come Dancing betting market looked on the Paddy Power app.

These odds are from the past and are used as an example only.

Weekly elimination market –

Winners market

The odds will change on the weekly scores and the perception of who is doing well. The more 10s a celebrity gets the shorter their odds are likely to go!

Sports Personality of the Year

A little more closely related to sport is of course Sports Personality of the Year. You can usually bet on this throughout the year, with the event then taking place in December.

As well as the winner of SPOTY, you’ll also be able to bet on the winners of other categories such as Sports Moment of the Year or Team of the Year.

This is a very popular market and you can usually bet on it all year. The odds will move as sporting events happen.

Next James Bond

There are always a number of “Next” markets when it comes to film and television. The most common of these at the moment is the next James Bond.

With Daniel Craig only having one film left before passing the role on, you’ll find this market on most betting apps.

The next Dr. Who is often offered as odds whenever there are rumours or confirmation of the current one stepping down.