Christmas Number One Betting Odds - The Fun Starts Here

There’s a weird obsession in the UK about getting a Christmas Number One. For some reason, useless ballads with bell noises all over them capture the British imagination like nothing else.

And that’s why we’re starting to take a look at the betting odds for the 2005 Christmas Number One - SportingOdds.com currently has a list of 43 festive tunes that are in contention to be crowned top of the seasonal pops. Some are good, most are crappy and all are just waiting for you to place some money on them.

So here’s the very first instalment of our Christmas Number One betting odds, with help from SportingOdds.com…

X Factor Winner - It’s becoming traditional that whoever wins
each-year’s Simon Cowell masterminded talent competition
will record any old cack as fast as they can and get the Christmas Number
One. And it’s the same this year; whoever wins X Factor is the clear
favourite to have the 2005 Christmas Number One. But this year they’ll
have a disadvantage - the song will be released on Wednesday 21st
December, two days after all the others. Whatever the song is, we’re
sure it’ll get publicised to death and sell ten billion copies. It’ll
still be shit, though. Current Christmas Number One odds - 4/7

England Cricketers - Yes yes yes, we know they did very well to win
The Ashes - even if they did only have to beat one measly country - but
for the England Cricketers to release a new version of Jerusalem to try
and snare the Christmas Number One reeks of over-doing things a little.
We hope the song does well - the proceeds go to charity - but Jerusalem
is being released on December 12; probably a week too early to be a real
Christmas Number One contender. And, anyway, listening to a roomful of
drunk blokes shouting a terrace chant has never been our cup of tea.
Current Christmas Number One odds - 25/1

Jenny Frost - As far as we’re aware, there aren’t any plans for
Jenny Frost to release a Christmas single. But - hey - she was on I’m A
Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here and that, so she’s probably at the peak of
her popularity. She should leg it into a studio right away, knock out a dodgy
version of Little Donkey and see how far her effort will get. Current
Christmas Number One odds - 50/1

Tony Christie - Tony ‘Please Let Me Still Be Famous, Please’
Christie is throwing his tired old hat into the Christmas Number One
ring with the release of Merry Xmas Everybody - the Slade song. It’s cruel to be nasty to the elderly at Christmas, but it needs to be said.
1) The song came out yesterday, far too early to be a contender for
Christmas number one, 2) to the kids of today, Tony Christie isn’t much
more than a lucky one-hit wonder, like Scatman John or something, and 3)
even though Jenny Frost’s Christmas song doesn’t exist, it still has
the same chance of making Christmas Number One as Tony Christie singing
Merry Xmas Everyone. Current Christmas Number One odds - 50/1

Crazy Frog - As much as the Crazy Frog annoys us, we’ll admit that
it’s Christmas Number One attempt is pretty genius - it’s a double A-side of
Jingle Bells (for the kids) and U Can’t Touch This (for idiots at
office parties). However, the song comes out next week and we haven’t
seen any TV commercials for it yet, they were the deciding factor in
getting Axel F to number one in the summer. Without a doubt, Crazy Frog
is the Mr Blobby of 2005. Current Christmas Number One odds - 25/1

You lucky people: we’ll be looking at the betting odds of different
Christmas Number One singles every day between now and Christmas.
That’s plenty of time for you to check out the amazingly comprehensive
Christmas Number One betting market over at the Specials section of
SportingOdds.com. And get betting - it’s the only way to stop you
becoming completely sick of the bloody songs.

[story by Stuart Heritage]