Royal Baby Betting Odds
–Kensington Palace has announced that Prince William and Duchess Kate are expecting their third child.
–The Royal Baby’s grandmother is the late Diana, Princess of Wales
–The Royal Baby will be fifth in line for the throne behind Prince Charles, Prince William, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
One of the biggest stories in the world media on Tuesday was an announcement of a forthcoming birth and this one could be bigger than Jay-Z and Beyonce. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting their third child. That would be Prince William and Duchess Kate Middleton for those of you not up on British royal honorifics. Prince William is second in line to the throne behind his father, Prince Charles aka the Prince of Wales. Of course, the family matriarch and current queen, Queen Elizabeth, continues to show remarkable durability at the age of 91. The forthcoming royal baby, which is being referred to as ‘The Royal Baby’ in lieu of an actual name, would become fifth in line to the throne behind the two aforementioned princes, his older brother Prince George and his sister Princess Charlotte. At one point, The Royal Baby (aka ‘TRB’) would have jumped to fourth in the line of succession but the practice of primogeniture–giving favoritism to the first born son–was eliminated in 2011.
Your first response might be ‘who cares’ beyond a few journalists stretching to link the practice of referring to The Royal Baby a ‘baby’ and not a ‘fetus’ as a stealth anti-choice conspiracy? Maybe it’s because ‘The Royal Fetus’ just doesn’t have the same ring to it. But I digress–Americans have a strange fascination with the Royal Family but the British get almost ridiculously excited over every new birth. I’ll leave it to the social science professors of the world to try and explain it but there’s legitimate celebration at the announcement and then again after the Royal Baby/Fetus is born. It gets a massive amount of coverage in the UK news media and becomes a major betting proposition at European sports books.
BETTING ON THE BABY
The British love to bet on all sorts of things including sports, politics, entertainment, etc. Given the almost inexplicable excitement that greets every royal birth announcement and their predilection for wagering it’s hardly a surprise that there’s a vigorous marketplace for propositions related to it. Most major UK sportsbooks offer speculative odds on the *next* royal baby meaning that you could have bet on the gender and name of Prince William and Duchess Kate’s offspring even before it had been conceived. The betting action *really* heats up once there’s a birth announcement and I’ll be very surprised if TRB #3 attracts more wagering volume than any previous royal baby. UK books got a ton of action prior to the birth of Prince George in 2012 with most books writing over 1 million pounds worth of bets. There’s a confluence of factors that suggest TRB #3 will bring in betting volume that will leave TRB #1 (aka Prince George) in the dust. One major factor is the further growth of the online betting marketplace which means that wagers can be placed from just about anywhere. This also makes it more likely that women and others outside of the typical bookmaker demographic will get down. Sportsbooks–particularly in England–have become much more aggressive in their marketing of non-sport ‘novelty’ propositions after writing an insane amount of tickets on the 2016 US election and the recent General Election. The media all over the world is becoming more comfortable talking about betting, bookmaking, odds, etc. Finally, the media has a 24 hour news cycle to fill and this is a perfect story to fill it with. It’ll be wall to wall coverage in the UK and Europe and you’ll even see a fair amount of coverage here in North America.
You know that we love this kind of proposition here at SPORTS BETTING EXPERTS. The UK sportsbooks may think this is ‘old hat’ but I’m excited about my first opportunity to take a crack at setting odds on a Royal Baby:
ROYAL BABY BETTING ODDS
GENDER OF ROYAL BABY?
Male: -120
Female: +100
WILL PRINCE WILLIAM AND DUCHESS KATE HAVE TWINS?
Yes: +750
No: -900
WILL PRINCE WILLIAM AND DUCHESS KATE HAVE TRIPLETS?
Yes: +1750
No: -3500
DAY OF ROYAL BABY’S BIRTH?
Monday: +500
Tuesday: +500
Wednesday: +500
Thursday: +500
Friday: +500
Saturday: +500
Sunday: +500
TIME OF ROYAL BABY’S BIRTH?
12:01 AM GMT to 6:00 AM GMT: +250
6:01 AM GMT to 12:00 PM GMT: +150
12:01 PM GMT to 6:00 PM GMT: +250
6:00 PM GMT to 12:00 AM GMT: +250
BIRTH WEIGHT OF ROYAL BABY?
Under 4 lbs 15 oz: +2500
5 lbs to 5 lbs 15 oz: +1500
6 lbs to 6 lbs 15 oz: +350
7 lbs to 7 lbs 15 oz: +150
8 lbs to 8 lbs 15 oz: +250
9 lbs to 9 lbs 15 oz: +450
Over 10 lbs: +1500
BIRTH LENGTH OF ROYAL BABY?
49 cm or under: +300
50 cm to 53 cm: -150
54 cm or over: +300
WILL THE BABY’S GENDER BE OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED BY THE ROYAL FAMILY PRIOR TO BIRTH?
Yes: +210
No: -250
WILL THE BABY’S NAME BE OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED BY THE ROYAL FAMILY PRIOR TO BIRTH?
Yes: +300
No: -350
WILL THE ROYAL FAMILY POST AN ULTRASOUND IMAGE ON TWITTER, FACEBOOK OR INSTAGRAM PRIOR TO THE BABY’S BIRTH?
Yes: +3750
No: -7500
WILL THE ROYAL BABY’S NAME RANK AMONG THE 10 MOST POPULAR IN THE UK FOR 2017?
Yes: +300
No: -350
WILL THE ROYAL BABY’S NAME BE EITHER THE MOST POPULAR BOY’S NAME (MUHAMMED) OR GIRL’S NAME (AMELIA) IN LONDON FOR 2017?
Yes: +3500
No: -7000
WILL THE ROYAL BABY’S NAME RANK AMONG THE 10 MOST POPULAR IN THE UNITED STATES FOR 2017?
Yes: +300
No: -350
THE ROYAL BABY’S FIRST NAME WILL BE?
Alice: +750
Arthur: +750
Victoria: +750
Alexander/Alexandra: +900
Edward: +900
Mary: +1250
Elizabeth: +1250
Charles: +1250
Albert: +1250
James: +1250
Phillip: +1500
Richard: +1500
Diana: +1500
Henry: +1750
Caroline: +1750
Frederick: +1750
Olivia: +1750
Grace: +2500
David: +2500
Spencer: +2500
Francis/Frances: +2500
Margaret: +2500
Ann/Anne: +2500
Beatrice: +2500
Emily: +2500
Sarah: +2500
Rose: +2500
Catherine/Kate: +2500
Charlotte: +2500
Amelia: +3500
Andrew: +3500
Helen/Helena: +3500
Daniel: +3500
Isabelle: +3500
Sebastian: +3500
Sophia: +3500
Fergal: +3500
Hunter: +7500
Bethany: +7500
Cortney/Courtney: +7500
Aloisius/Aloysius: +15000
Dino/Dean: +15000
Wayne: +15000
Caleb: +15000
Lita: +15000
Beckham: +15000
Ozzy: +25000
Misty: +25000
Brad: +25000
Elton: +25000
Ronnie James: +25000
Moxie: +25000
Gunner/Gunnar: +25000
Crystal: +25000
Barry: +25000
Bodhi: +50000
Elvis: +50000
Dwayne: +50000
Felony/Phelony: +50000
Tiffany/Tiffani: +50000
Donald: +50000
Axl: +50000
Any Other Name: +500
All wagers will be graded on official information announced regarding the third born child of Prince William and Kate Middleton.