Soccer Odds - Bet It Like Beckham
by Cliff Vicious
The new British Invasion is upon us.
David Beckham and family left Heathrow Airport on Thursday, bound for Los Angeles and a new life in America. Beckham will debut for the Toronto F.C. What will happen? The futures market has a few ideas.
Interest in soccer may be nascent on these shores, but interest in Beckham – and his wife Victoria, the former Posh Spice – is saturating both the sports and entertainment pages. Fittingly, the Beckham specials are divided between the two; one group asks what will take place on the pitch during Beckham’s regular-season debut, while the other is focused on the trials and tribulations of celebrity life.
The ten match-specific offerings are not all mutually exclusive, but all ten lie firmly within the realm of possibility. The outcome getting the shortest odds at +200 is Bex scoring at least one goal. You can narrow those odds by getting more specific about the nature of the goal: a game-winner (+500), a free kick (+600), or a corner kick (+1000). A hat trick will pay out handsomely at +1500. The other five options deal with less fortunate results – Bex will not be pleased to see that he’s pegged at just +1000 to be forced out of his Galaxy debut by injury.
Heading the second list of 15 specials is, naturally, sex and television. The odds on the Beckhams getting their own reality show are very short at +150. Victoria already has her own program in post-production: Victoria Beckham: Coming to America. If people watch, and they will, more series should follow. The sex is provided by Paris Hilton: +200 if she and Bex hook up. Divorce for the Beckhams is also pegged at +200, but it’s difficult to imagine this occurring before the end of 2008 as the wager requires, even if David starts going out for hamburger when there’s steak at home.
As with all exotic wagers, use discretion. Beckham becoming a U.S. citizen and running for governor is priced at +1000, the same as a corner kick. Both, however, are highly unlikely events. Any gubernatorial ambitions Beckham may foster will have to wait well beyond ’08; as for corner kicks, Beckham usually takes them, which precludes him from scoring on them – no, videogames don’t count.
, and the fastest payouts in the industry
