So far this week we’ve been piddling about concerning ourselves with the over-25s and group X Factor categories. But we all know they don’t stand a chance – why vote for a boyband or an old git when you could vote for a sexy young thing?

Look at last year’s X Factor – other singers may have had better voices but it was Shayne Ward’s temporary ability to make schoolgirls wet themselves on sight that won him the X Factor title. The 16-24s category is where it’s at, baby, and Simon Cowell would have to do something insanely dumb to lose X Factor this year. Something like, say, making them all sing Righteous Brothers songs all the time. Could happen. But which of Simon Cowell’s X Factor charges will do the best this year? Only one way to find out…

Here are the X Factor betting odds for to see which 16-24 finalist will go the furthest, with betting odds from PaddyPower…

Nickitta Angus – If one X Factor judge kept hold of all their singers until the end of the series at the expense of the other judges’ singers, X Factor would be rubbish. Now, we’re not suggesting that Sharon Osbourne, Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh all deliberately pick one crappy singer each just to even things out, but that’s the only way that we can explain why Simon picked Nickitta over any of the other singers – like Gemma, who we’ve become ever so slightly enamoured with. The only thing that we can remember about Nickitta is that her Mum died recently which, while it isn’t something to poke fun at, isn’t really a reason to bung her on a national televised talent show either. Current X Factor betting odds – 7/2

Ray Quinn – If X Factor was a competition to find weedy boys who make you want to slap them in the face until they fall to the floor crying, Ray would walk it. For a start he looks like the kid from Malcolm In The Middle, and also he burst into an embarrassing flood of girly tears when he was originally told to leave the show before Simon Cowell inexplicably decided to drag him back into the running. Actually, we know exactly why Ray Quinn is in the X Factor finals – because he’s more or less got ‘MOTHER ME, YOU MENOPAUSAL HOUSEWIVES’ tattooed right across his useless face. And you all know who the last person to try this tactic was – young Gareth Gates. And look what happened to him. Current X Factor betting odds – 7/2

Ashley McKenzie – When Sideshow Bob-haired Ashley had his first X Factor audition, he blew everyone away with his rich Billy Paul-esque voice. However, Ashley hasn’t managed to recapture that initial spark – he arsed his songs up twice during bootcamp and then threw a strop in Miami when Simon Cowell made him sing an old George Michael tune. Despite all that, Ashley possibly has the best voice in the whole darn series – so warm and honeyed that you can hardly believe it’s coming from such a bizarre-looking boy. Not that any of that means a thing, though – even if Ashley manages to control his often-defeatist attitude, at some point Ashley’s going to be given a wildly inappropriate song to sing, mess it up and leave the show like Maria Lawson did last year. Current X Factor betting odds -  15/8

Leonna Lewis – Common consensus is that Leonna will be the singer to eventually win X Factor. And we’d be inclined to agree, except for the tiny fact that Leonna is so utterly bland that she could could sing a song directly into our face and three seconds later we wouldn’t be able to tell you a) what she looked like, b) what song she was singing or c) if she was any good or not. Still, Simon Cowell liked Leonna – and you can’t argue with the man who gave the world Robson And Fucking Jerome, can you? Maybe Leonna has a wealth of untapped talent that we haven’t been able to see yet, and we get the feeling that she’s going to pound us over the head with 150 Whitney Houston powerballads until we groan a weak cry of submission. Current X Factor betting odds – 15/8

Tomorrow: That’s enough X Factor for one week, let’s start on taking apart the Strictly Come Dancing contestants. Don’t forget to check out Paddypower.com for the full list of X Factor betting odds, either!

[story by Stuart Heritage]