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

Bad news for fans of pretty girls wigging about in their pants - Hope are the latest act to be ejected from X Factor, something that means the only female eye candy left on X Factor comes in the form of a self-satisfied school dinnerlady.

That's not to say that Hope didn't deserve to be booted out of X Factor, though - they absolutely did, thanks to a lukewarm performance of 2 Become 1 and a version of We Will Rock You that served only as an excuse for each member of Hope to go "WooooahohhAHHHOOOOH!" in turn. But don't worry, Hope fans - the group promises that it will absolutely stay together forever now, which will at least start a medium-sized bidding war between a handful of subscription-based soft-pornography digital TV channels if nothing else.

But now that Hope are out of X Factor, who's going to win? Here are the X Factor betting odds - for Same Difference and Niki Evans - with help from Paddy Power…

Same Difference - Last week was a very important X Factor for Same Difference because it showed that they can be marginally less dreadful if they're not surrounded by billions of gormless gimmicks, so this week they expanded on that by, um, surrounding themselves with billions of gormless gimmicks. For their first X Factor performance - a skin-crawlingly over-sincere rendition of Any Dream Will Do - Same Difference were joined by a toothy choir of candle-holding children who looked like they were kicked out of Narnia for being too twee. There may have been a group hug at the end - we were too busy vomiting our guts out to pay attention by that point.

But, compared to Same Difference's second X Factor performance of Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, it was a masterpiece of restraint. Sung from beds and flanked by pillow-fighting dancers in dressing gowns, it was a riot of silly faces and wacky dancers that single handedly convinced us to commit some sort of terrible hate crime if Same Difference win X Factor. By the way, has anyone else noticed that the girl from Same Difference hardly gets to sing anything by herself. Why? Is she shit? Current X Factor betting odds - 12/1

Niki Evans - Throughout X Factor, Niki Evans has solidly been the second-favourite to win, but now she's been usurped by Leon Jackson. Surely that's a mistake - after all, now that Beverley Trottman is no longer in X Factor, Niki has all the old ropey older lady votes to herself. So what has accounted for Niki Evans' X Factor slump?

Firstly, there's the fact that Niki Evans' songs on Saturday were unstoppably lame. Niki sang Total Eclipse Of The Heart - completing her inevitable transformation into Bonnie Tyler that we've been banging on about for months - and then Niki performed a song by Sting, of all people. Sting. And just to make sure that people really wouldn't like it, Niki sang the song at half-speed  - making it appear to last for about three or four years - in the style of a disenchanted ghost unenthusiastically failing to haunt the inside of an empty crisp packet. Also, how much smugger can Niki Evans get without smearing herself in butter and hugging herself to death? Current X Factor betting odds - 7/1

Tomorrow - the X Factor betting odds for Leon Jackson 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.