2008 BBC Sports Personality of the Year - Rebecca Adlington Moves To Joint Favourite with Hamilton

Bookmakers across UK have been forced to cut odds on Olympic Gold Medalist, Rebecca Adlington being named 2008 Sports Personality of the Year on 14^th Dec 2008.

She is now joint favourite with long standing Odd-on favourite till now, Lewis Hamilton. The British Formula One Champion is now evens and above at almost all UK bookmakers and others are expected to follow suit.

This has been attributed to the significant backing Ms. Adlington has been getting from betters during this week in run up to the final public voting.

William Hills spokesman Graham Sharpe said "We suddenly saw a string of bets of up to £500 a time for Becky during afternoon trading, forcing her odds down substantially, which is unusual in a market as mature as this one. It is the biggest gamble we've ever seen at this stage of the event."

The situation is similar at other bookmakers also and SkyBet's Dave Pilgrim said "We were as long as 5/2 on Monday about the Mansfield gold medallist adding the Sports Personality award to her 2008 honours, but virtually every bet we have seen has been for the swimmer, and we are now into 5/4!

"The price move has seen us ease Hamilton out to evens from a low of 4/9 in November, while Chris Hoy will be hoping the Scottish vote can make a mockery of his odds of 5/1.

"We aren't certain where the support has started coming from but it has been consistent in so much as over 90% of the money we have been laying over the past couple of days has been for Adlington.

Chris Hoy odds have also eased due to this shakeup but he still remains third in the race.

We at Betting Choice had recommended backing Rebecca in our previous article on Straight Forecast Betting along with Hamilton. We still believe that Rebecca can be the only one to challenge Hamilton for the top spot and if the betting patters are anything to go by, it seems that public sentiment is going heavily in her favour and finally it is the public who is going to vote on 14^th Dec and decide the winner.

Here are the best odds available on top 5 nominees across various bookmakers for BBC Sports Personality Of The Year Award Winner:

Lewis Hamiltion 13/10 at Sporting Bet

Rebecca Adlinton 11/8 at Canbet

Chris Hoy 5/1 at Canbet

Joe Calzaghe 66/1 at Bet365, Bluesquare, 888Sport and Ladbrokes

Andrew Murray 150/1 at VC Bet