Ladbrokes halts Bake Off bets
Ladbrokes is refusing to take bets on the outcome of the Great British Bake Off, over fears that the name of the winner may have been leaked.
The bookmaker says it's noticed a suspicious run of bets on one particular contestant in the BBC show - who accounted for 90% of all bets placed. Odds on this person started at 12/1 and were cut to 6/1, 3/1 and then evens before betting was suspended.
The bets were placed by several different people at a variety of outlets, but were concentrated in the Ipswich area. However, none of the contestants - who hail from Surrey, Berkshire, Lancashire, Cambridgeshire, London, West Yorkshire, Manchester, Essex, Swansea, Perthshire and Paris - is known to have connections to the Suffolk town.
While the bets amounted to only a few thousand pounds in total, many were for the maximum amount Ladbrokes was accepting for the show.
"We offered prices on Monday and, almost before the ink was dry, an unusual number of punters were in a rush to back only one contestant," a Ladbrokes spokesperson told the BBC.
"On Tuesday and Wednesday it was more of the same one-way traffic. That was enough to set our alarm bells ringing and, as a precaution, we suspended our betting."
The decision won't affect any bets that have already been placed.
It's the second time this has happened, with bookmaker Coral suspending betting during the 2013 series, after 90% of bets were on the eventual winner, Frances Quinn.
Then, as now, the suspicion was that somebody had leaked the result. The series is filmed some months in advance, with contestants and their families aware of the result, along with members of the production team.
Other bookies, including William Hill and Paddy Power, refuse to take bets on the show because it is pre-recorded.
On Wednesday night, musician Stuart Henshall became the first contestant to be sent home from the show, after failing to impress with a beetroot-based Black Forest gateau. The show was watched by 9.3 million people.
Ladbrokes says it hopes to start taking bets again, but with revised odds.
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