£15 million Forecast to be Bet on Big Brother 8

Virgin could offer betting menu on Big Brother 8 soon with Richard Branson company to play major role in upcoming season
 

Great Britain's biggest bookmaker, William Hill is forecasting £15 to be bet on Big Brother 8 in the UK.  Their has already been interests from punters looking at special bets for which William Hill offers a whole slew of them, including 8/1 odds on a housemate to fall down stairs on arrival and
25/1 Big Brother 8 to be taken off air mid series.

Gambling911.com has already featured an article on Big Brother 8 snogging bets offered at PaddyPower.com

Big Brother 8, which debuts this coming Wednesday and runs through the end of August, is expected to be one of Gambling911.com's most trafficked themes for the summer. 

"Typically Gambling911.com has enjoyed a strong following in the United Kingdom for all the latest Big Brother betting news and odds," explains the website's Senior Editor, Payton O'Brien.  Gambling911.com has already assigned it eccentric tri-sexed reporter, Sparky Collins to cover the show.  "Who better than everyone's favorite bubbly personally, Sparky Collins, to cover a show that is full of bubbly entertainment, and of course some over the top snogging."

Sparky will also be representative of the alternative lifestyle theme weighing heavily on Big Brother 8.  A gay couple was one of the first unofficially announced housemates, and if we had to guess they will probably be forced to bed with other housemates. 

Gambling911.com, despite its huge presence in the Big Brother UK market, has yet to find a sponsor partner for the series.

"Gambling911.com is published out of Miami Beach," explains O'Brien.  "The site itself is based out of Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada and during the Big Brother betting season, traffic shifts to approximately 60% non-US.  Also Gambling911.com is one of the few online gambling related media outlets that geo-targets specific regions with advertising."

O'Brien wishes to quash the perception that Gambling911.com is strictly US and Canadian focused.

"Our most significant growth is in the United Kingdom and readership there will rival that of the US throughout this summer."

Gambling911.com has also revealed that it will be in discussions with Virgin Games at this year's CAP Spring Break Bahamas about unveiling Big Brother 8 betting odds as part of its already in place casino, poker and skill game platform.  Virgin Games already enjoys a successful international partnership with Gambling911.  Virgin founder, Richard Branson is slated to appear on the show as a special guest, and is already among the show's key sponsors.  Endemol, the Netherlands company that produces Big Brother UK, has also entered into the lucrative billion dollar online betting industry. 

Richard Branson has stepped in to fill the void left by Big Brother UK's biggest sponsor, Car Phone Warehouse. 

Virgin Gaming is presently exploring various online gambling alternatives.  The company enjoys a tremendous advantage over even its biggest rivals Ladbrokes and William Hill due to its massive multi-branding media appeal. 

Richard Branson's Virgin Group enjoys a major sponsorship deal with Big Brother 8.  Ideally, Virgin would make for a great company to start offering bets on Big Brother 8. 
 

"There are obviously great synergies between Virgin and Gambling911.com," explains O'Brien.  "Virgin will be Big Brother 8's top sponsor while Gambling911.com will be Big Brother 8's top betting news provider.  It would make perfect sense."

Of course it could be argued that Virgin would also make a huge impact on the sports betting world being that they now compete directly with Sky Sports, via the Virgin Media television venture.

"The bookmaking field becomes a feasibility nightmare.  You need specialists in all sports.  The punters can rip you to shreds.  Offering entertainment betting odds on such things as Big Brother 8 fits Virgin's present business model."

" In the space of five years, Reality TV betting has become a multi-million pound industry and is the bet of choice for many punters who feel that as they are the judge of who wins then surely they know as much as the bookies. We took in the region of £2 million on BB7 and are confident that the 'Shilpa' factor will mean that we could double that figure this time round- we are in for a very busy few months", said Hill's spokesman Rupert Adams tells ReadaBet.com

The "Shilpa" factor is in reference to Bollywood star, Shilpa Shetty, who entered the last installment of Celebrity Big Brother as a big 14/1 underdog.  A racial row targeting Ms. Shetty generated worldwide outrage and in some cases street riots.  Public sympathy ultimately resulted in Shilpa Shetty becoming the big favorite to win Celebrity Big Brother, something she did indeed accomplish.

Car Phone Warehouse cited the racial row as reason for canceling its sponsorship deal. 

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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com

Originally published May 24, 2007 10:53 am ET