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Gambling911.com can safely predict that this year's Oscar betting activity will be the most active on record to date. "By Sunday morning, traditionally the slowest traffic period of the week outside of the overnight hours, traffic was triple the norm," declared Payton O'Brien, Senior Editor of the Gambling911.com website. "We were witnessing massive inquiries for Oscar betting and all the various odds with nearly 10 more hours until show time." But the website and the actual online gambling outfits have warned "Get your bets in quick!" "With this amount of unprecedented traffic - similar to what we witnessed Super Bowl Sunday morning I might add - those who are looking to get bets in on the Oscars will need to sign up early. If anyone already has an online betting account set up, get those bets placed now. The crunch time surge could make it difficult to get those bets in the few hours prior to the start of the Oscars." Gambling911 was already projecting a record setting day for traffic by Sunday morning. Approximately 40 percent of the Oscar betting inquiries were coming from outside of the U.S. late Sunday morning, the site reported. A number of online gambling sites were offering top bonuses and a few unusual Oscar betting props Case in point, Bodog was offering betting odds one whether an 80th Annual Academy (Oscar) Award winner trip and fall while making their way on or off stage? And, In their acceptance speech, who will the winner of the 80th Annual Academy (Oscar) Award for Best Actress thank first? Sportsbook.com is offering free movie tickets throughout the year. And while the biggest awards will be handed out at the very end of the show: "Best Film" and "Best Director", viewers (and bettors) won't have to wait long to hear the most anticipated award of the night get announced. "The nomination for 'Best Supporting Actress' is proving to be the most competitive with three actresses vying for the favorite spot and two potential upsets in the making that would pay out huge sums of money," O'Brien said. Tilda Swinton is the so-called "underdog" in this category but she is a huge "value pick" paying out the most at Bookmaker.com - $800 for every $100 bet. If you really want to get fancy, Saoirse Ronan is probably the biggest underdog with the best chance of winning. She would pay out $3000 for every $100 bet. "As we have seen in the past, the 'Best Picture' category is not always a lock. This year, No Country For Old Men is the favorite at -285 (which would require a $2.85 bet to win $1.00 and you would get the initial $2.85 bet back if the film wins), but we have seen these odds fall a bit. There Will be Blood pays $285 for every $100 bet (+285 odds) and there are those who believe this film could walk off with the Oscar. Then there is the argument that the Academy shies away from bloody films. How about Juno at +400 odds for a $400 payout on every $100 bet?" Atonement would pay out $775 for every $100 bet at press time at Bookmaker.com. Michael Clayton would pay a whopping $3300 for every $100 bet! Oscar betting is generally considered the third most bet on single day event of the year among online gambling sites after the Super Bowl and Kentucky Derby. Most of the bets are smaller than those placed on either of the later two sporting events and the options are fewer (i.e. most online gambling sites only offer bets on the main categories with very few fun propositions like those that you see with the Super Bowl). There are, however, more main areas in which to bet on compared with the Super Bowl or Kentucky Derby where the primary bet revolves around a single team or horse winning. With the Oscars there are several categories, each offering the potential for a high paying upset like a Michael Clayton and that $3300 windfall. Won't happen? It has in recent years. Crash won "Best Picture" over the highly touted Brokeback Mountain just two years ago.
Roger Ebert and
several other
critics called Crash
"The Best Movie of
2005". In
fact, Ebert himself
predicted that Crash
would win the Oscar
for Best Picture
over Brokeback
Mountain on the
grounds that it was
"a better film."
The comedian Stephen
Colbert, host of The
Colbert Report, and
Film Threat creator
and Attack of the
Show! movie
correspondent, Chris
Gore, also
accurately predicted
Crash would win the
Best Picture Oscar.
Brokeback author E.
Annie Proulx blamed
right-wing
influences for the
film's failure to
win Best Picture. Find Gambling Sites Offering Online Betting on the Oscars Here ---- Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher CCostigan@CostiganMedia.com Originally published February 24, 2008 10:40 am EST
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