yup, 20/05/06, 3.30pm
to me, betting is simply about becoming excited about something that is pretty dull. i wouldnt ever need to bet on an england or liverpool football game as i have an interest already. however, if im watching charlton against blackburn i really need an incentive to be interested. so i figured that for a fifty pound bet (which is around twenty times more than ive ever gambled in one go before) i need something that is normally of little interest and also lasts a long time - i want full enjoyment from my fifty quid, as it is sure to be lost. and today it hit me what i should bet on... eurovision!
now you may have seen the finland entry already. they look like this...
how brilliant is that? they are in eurovision. utterley amazing. they are called 'lordi' i believe.
i knew that they were already entered, but i had no idea what odds they were. i figured they would probably be quite low in the pecking order of the 25 or so countries, and would therefore be around 150-1 or something. i did myself a mental deal, and decided that if this bunch of fantastic people were 10-1 to win, id plump my fifty quid on them. so i got on the net, and checked out the odds...
my god, so close!! they were 9-1 with betfair and sporting odds, but no 10-1 anywhere. if the omens aren't there then they're just not there i guess.
but what was this...
i clicked on to the betfair website and the odds were slightly different.
they were 10-1! the gods of betting are so smiling down on me! so i quickly set up an account (how easy is that by the way? no wonder we have gambling addicts...) and got my fifty quid on.
my god thats a lot of money. the fifty quid i mean. but hey, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to back a silly metal band, at exactly the odds i needed in the campest competition of all time. and if i win, ill do something fun with the money.
actually, a thing happened when i made my bet. seconds afterwards when it took me back to the betting screen (presumably to make me loose more money) the odds had changed to 9.8-1 (or 49-5 for those who like more traditional odds). just like my share buying experience, my bet had rocked the odds of the biggest music competition in the world. maybe.
come on lordi! lets have a winner!
20/05/06, 8.30pm
we are about eight songs in and i havent really seen anything as fun as the finnish entrant yet. although the six blonde, leggy norwegian women are quite an attractive option.
8.40pm
a particulary camp entry from greece comes on and gives the em led an opportunity to dance like a gay man...
8.46pm
'lordi' come on! they are not as heavy as i thought they would be, but this is a pretty catchy tune. and i reckon that every metaller in europe will be voting for them. they look a bit like gwar.
me enjoying lordi. christ i look very attractive in these pictures. however, image is not important when you are a rocker.
looks like a sweaty night in the basement of rock city...
10.00pm
its all over and the votes are in. apparently the bloke from russia is some sort of eastern european hearthrob, so that could be major competition as there are a lot of balkan states voting. how you pick 'favourites' from the others is rather beyond me though, they all seemed shite.
10.15pm
christ on a bike, finland are winning. seven countries out of thirty six (how many?!) have voted and it is currently finland with 48 points followed in second by sweden with 46. come on!
10.21pm
okay, around thirteen counrties have voted and finland are still winning with 85 points. bosnia are now in second place with 79, so it is still pretty close.
10.28pm
we are storming this!
10.32pm
the tension is getting a bit much for me and the em led...
you can see at this point that im becoming a bit flushed. im half way to winning 500 smakeroos! the only prizes ive ever won were both from the 'funday times', which was the kids newspaper that came with the sunday times. the first prize i won was an encyclopedia (woppee do) and the second prize was a years supply of 'pop pop popcorn'. which sounds great until youve had your 17th bag in a week and realise that you weren't that keen on the stuff in the first place. if anyone is interested in free pop corn i think there are still some bags in my parents garage. contact them if you fancy it.
10.43pm
holy jesus, i think im gonna win. the lovely uk judge, fearne cotton has just given finland 12 points from the uk audience and accompanied her vote with the metal 'v' sign. god bless her.
10.48pm
its all over!!! ive won a monkey!!! not literally of course, but 500 quid is all mine!!!
so how cool is that?!
i know, i know, a bit lucky. but thinking about it, 10-1 was quite a long shot for an act that everyone who doesn't like tacky pop would probably vote for. even my mum liked them.
so, what to spend the money on? i guess the obvious answer is to spend it on a trip to iceland, or maybe on snowboarding lessons. if you have a better idea, do let me know.
30/06/2006
Okay, alright, enough already... I know that the bet wasn't strictly 10-1, it was 9-1.
The lovely people from Betfair (where I put the original bet on) have been in touch to offer me a charity bet of 50 quid on England to win the World Cup. And, of course, they have offered me special odds of 10-1. If I win the 550 quid will go to Breast Cancer Care. You can see how the money raising is going by visiting the charity output of this site here.
If I win this bet too then I am officially available for punting advice...
1/09/2006
I think we all knew that I wasn't going to win that bet.
