X Factor Betting Odds: Alisha Gone, Who’ll Win?

There are a few rules that one should adhere to when reaching the X Factor live finals - one is to invent as many sob stories about yourself as possible, and the other is to avoid rollerskates, as Alisha Bennett found out on Saturday.

Although Alisha Bennett's befuddling stage routine to her X Factor rendition of Young Hearts Run Free - plus her wonky vocals - contributed to her downfall, she still has plenty to be proud about. For starters, Alisha Bennett will go down in history as the only X Factor contestant who made Sharon Osbourne launch into a weird tear-flecked defence of people who have to rollerskate to make a living - and if that's not enough, Alisha Bennett has never to our knowledge thrown a schoolgirl against a brick wall by her hair, which at least sets her apart from 50% of Sharon Osbourne's other X Factor flock. We'll miss Alisha Bennett, that's for sure, or at least - ooh - a day or so.

It'd be longer but we're still trying to work out who'll win X Factor this year. So here are today's X Factor betting odds for Hope, Same Difference and Leon Jackson, with help from Paddy Power…

Hope - Well, ain't this quite the turnaround - Hope, the girlgroup lauded to win X Factor at the start of the competition, are now rank outsiders. But why? Perhaps it's because Hope aren't actually a girlgroup - anyone watching Hope's performance of Gimme Gimme Gimme on Saturday will have noticed that only one of them is allowed to sing, only one of them is allowed to talk and all the others may as well be kebab-meat kestrel sculptures for all the good they actually sodding do. As it happens, Hope's X Factor routine wasn't especially awful - there was a clever little Madonna mash-up bit plus the whole thing doubled up as a fun 'count the cameltoes' side-game - but with two X Factor sing-offs under their belt, Hope are going to need to change strategy sharpish. This either means they all share the vocals more equally in the future or they start writhing about like jelly-spined prostitutes high on catnip again. We know which one we'd prefer. Current X Factor betting odds - 12/1

Same Difference - Saturday was the X Factor Disco Night, but if you didn't know that and only saw Same Difference's performance of Blame It On The Boogie you may have thought that you were watching the X Factor 1983 Lithuanian Eurovision Song Contest Qualifying Round Night. Pretty much everything about it was awful, from the golden tracksuits to the horrifying attempts at raunch to the alarming realisation that Same Difference are somehow even more creepy when they're singing to people they're not directly related to. It says a lot about Same Difference's X Factor performance that it was easily their most mature song to date, and it was written by perennial eerie boychild Michael Jackson when he was 20. Since logic dictates that Same Difference narrowly avoided the sing-off on Saturday, we'd imagine that they'll be back doing what they do best next week - churning out the theme-tune to Dora The Explorer dressed up as bumblebees. Current X Factor betting odds - 10/1

Leon Jackson - You may know Leon Jackson as X Factor's resident red-eyed wuss, but a quiet transformation has been taking place over the weeks. You see, despite being very obviously terrible, Leon Jackson has gone seven weeks without facing X Factor elimination, which has built his confidence up somewhat - and now traces of Leon's real personality are coming out. It's just a shame that Leon's real personality seems to be fairly bastard-heavy. Even though all he did on Saturday's X Factor was sing Relight My Fire with his knees constantly bent like he'd just shat himself while wearing a sparkly Scottish flag on his T-shirt - in itself an act of regional desperation so nauseating that it literally made us chew our own ankles off - Leon started hoofing about in front of the X Factor judges like some sort of obnoxious Little Lord Fauntleroy who'd just won the pools. In truth, though, we didn't hate Leon's routine - we just can't bring ourselves to forge an opinion about it. Current X Factor betting odds - 10/1

Tomorrow - X Factor betting odds for Beverley Trottman, Niki Evans and Rhydian Roberts. But if that's too long to wait - or you feel like making more money than you know what to do with - head right over to the Paddy Power X Factor betting odds page to see the latest, and best, betting odds.