Novelty Bets – Wagers For The Fun Of It

So where are we now? Well you could bet on a Premier League, or the next Test match in South Africa, or any number of casino games or slots, and there's always the lotto too, but that doesn't stop thousands of people betting on things the rest of us deem slightly bizarre. These novelty bets are not for everyone, but not just for absolute beginners, and there's plenty to get your teeth into if you look.

Novelty Bets

• Celebrity Big Brother
• X-Factor
• The Voice

Personally I'm a huge fan of political gambling, betting on candidates is pretty much the only way to benefit from an election even if the person you voted for wins, but I do realize that when I mention it most people look at me as if they've just discovered life on mars as the world falls down around them. They would consider my wagers on the US general election to be novelty bets, but most people wouldn't, they'd much rather bet on who'll be the winner of the next reality talent show to hit television.

Of course the man who sold the world this ghastly format, Simon Cowell, can still be seen on Britain's-Got-Strictly-X-Voice or whatever it's called, apparently the golden years of television have gone, they are ashes to ashes now, and we're left with young Americans attempting to impress with their sound & vision, doing some magic dance in order to impress minor celebrity judges who seem insistent on telling people “You can be a star, man” whilst knowing most contestants won't be – ever.

Novelty bets on these shows are outrageously popular, it's not a sport, it's not a game, it's not objective and could all so, so, so easily be rigged, and yet week after week people wager on these kooks, the modern love of technology making it simple at sites like Bet365 to take advantage of UK gambling laws and back your favorite contestant with your cash, The fact that some of them are very evidently committing rock & roll suicide doesn't matter, the others become almost heroes to their fans.

The Strange World Of Novelty Bets

Of course changes in culture always bring about these rather disturbing trends and over the last five years it has only got worse, the Eurovision song contest is now to Novelty bet lovers what the World Cup final is be to the rest of us. Right now in the UK it's Celebrity Big Brother that has caught the imagination and has people dancing in the streets with their betting slips. For those interested Bet365 will give you 10/3 on Scott Timlin, 9/2 on John Partridge and 6/1 on Gemma Collins. Don't know who they are? No. Neither do I.

Naturally whilst CBB is attracting many of the novelty bets that seems almost sensible by comparisons with those cat people betting on “The Voice” or “X-Factor”. Big Brother is simple to rig, you just claim so and so got more telephone votes than other people, a simple software trick at best, and has often been accused of being scripted despite purporting to be “reality”, the talent shows, on the other hand are much darker affairs with the judges, particularly Cowell, having a fiscal interest in the outcome.


It makes rather a mockery of all the young dudes complaining about FIFA ruining football, when a competition so manifestly rigged to the benefit of those who holds the strings is still popular amongst novelty bets. Does that make novelty bet fans less sensible than those who like to bet on sports in the UK? Probably, but the fun is undeniable, and when it comes to novelty bets that's the be all and end all of it, the fun. Yes, it might be throwing your money into quicksand, but it's a wager you can share.

Novelty Bets Ever More Popular

The cultural phenomenon of television reinventing the holiday-camp competitions of the 1950s and putting them out as prime time shows is a relatively new one, but it has become hugely popular around the world, and you only need a glittery stage, a mahogany tanned host and a sign saying “Let's dance! ” and you've another hit on your hands. People love it, and whereas the boys keep swinging at sports betting as if one day they'll get it right, everyone else much prefers these all inclusive novelty bets .

They were already watching the show anyway, their friends, colleagues and family will all have their own opinions after a fashion. There is a ubiquity of information in the press, and the excitement is artificially built up by the production companies because it's entertainment and that's what they're supposed to do. Premier League results on a wet Saturday can't compete with the narrative of a contestant who has struggled up from nothing to sing something ghastly in search of fame and fortune.

To understand just how far this has gone understand that you can now wager on who the next president will be.....not in the US of A, no, in House Of Cards, the utterly superb show on Netflicks. It's scripted. Someone writes it. Someone will just decide, and yet......you can place a novelty bet on it as easy as backing France to win Euro 2016. So you'll have to watch this space oddity is gaining momentum and novelty bets are likely to get ever more popular and will one day make gambling news headlines of their own. 

Why the italics? 

Oh you pretty things, it's simple. 

I'm a space cadet and Ziggy was my captain. 

RIP David Bowie.