The live finals of this year’s X Factor are just over a week away, and not only will it mean we’ll get to see Dermot O’Leary cry like a big nonsensehead with more regularity, but we’ll also be able to get on with some X Factor betting odds.

We can’t do that at the moment because we just don’t know who the 12 X Factor finalists are yet – although they’d better include the shortish foreign man with the impenetrable accent who only seems to know how to shout the word “Emotion!” over and over and throw himself to the floor like a narcoleptic goat to express himself, or else we’ll write a strongly-worded letter – but that shan’t stop us whacking along with more of these special judge-based X Factor betting odds. It shan’t.

Today: X Factor betting odds for Louis Walsh to quit X Factor and never return. Betting odds as always come from Paddy Power…

Louis Walsh to quit the show as a judge, before the Final night, & not return – God, Louis Walsh is such a goon. The whole first episode of this year’s X Factor was more or less about how the X Factor judging team wasn’t gelling without a pointless fey Irishman sitting on the end of the table blurting out whatever blandly insincere platitudes he thinks the audience will clap him most for. So now Louis Walsh is back in the X Factor fold, will he manage to sty there for the entire series? Frankly, we couldn’t care less. Aside from the occasional weedy “no Simon, I think you’re wrong” the only thing Louis Walsh contributes to X Factor is grey hair, and we’re pretty sure that Sharon Osbourne‘s pubes will be filling that quota within the next year or so. He could walk off X Factor now and people wouldn’t even notice he’d gone before the end of the month. He might be gone now for all we know. But, listen, you could win a lot of money if Louis Walsh did go missing never to return, if you know what we’re saying. And, no, we’re not saying ‘kidnap Louis Walsh’. We’re saying ‘chloroform Louis Walsh and hide him in the forest before he wakes up.’ Oh, alright, we’re not saying that either. Current X Factor betting odds – 4/1

Tomorrow – will the X Factor winner get the Christmas number one? 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.