Here's how well we did with our bets during Big Brother 9

We did really well during Big Brother 9, simply by following public opinion once again and not placing too many losing bets along the way. Having won nearly £1000 by the final week of the series, we risked over half of it in the last few days of the game and ended-up clearing almost £1900 all told.

If you followed our lead and had a gamble during Big Brother 9, however big or small, we hope it paid-off for you too. And if you didn't get involved, you know what to do this year!

Overall Result: won £2076, lost £200, making for a Total Net Profit during Big Brother 9 of £1876.

Monday, 1st September 2008 (Day 89)
In the final week of the series, we placed a number of bets which were frankly a bit risky seeing as the outcome of the series was rather uncertain, even at that late stage of the game. Here's what we did:

Staked £320 on Rachel Rice to Win Big Brother 9 at the odds of 5/2 for a potential profit of £800, and staked £150 on there being a Female Winner at 6/4, for a potential profit of £225. We also made a couple of side bets, which turned-out to be a waste of money, but hey ho. These were: a £70 stake on Rex Newmark to Win at 7/1 for a potential profit of £490, and £50 on Sara Folino to Win at 11/2 for a potential profit of £275. The latter bets were 'just in case', and obviously we knew that we couldn't win all of the bets we'd placed. Basically, if Rex (who came 4th) had won the series, we'd have suffered a small but tolerable loss of £30; if Sara (who came 3rd) had gone all the way, we would made a moderate profit of £110. However, we were really counting on Rachel winning Big Brother 9, and when she did, we won the £800 mentioned above. We also got our stakes back for those two bets.

We were sweating for a while though, because we hadn't even backed eventual Runner-up Mikey (Michael), partly because his odds were incredibly low towards the end of the series, and partly because no Poll anywhere on the internet suggested that he would win. In other words, we thought the bookies were wrong by making him the favourite, and it seems that we were right.  Result: £800 profit + £225 profit + £70 loss + £50 loss = net profit of £905.

Monday, 1st September 2008 (Day 89)
The public had been voting for a winner since the Friday night, and fans knew that there'd be a surprise Double Eviction the following Tuesday. So, seeing as two-out-of seven people would be going, it wasn't entirely clearcut but nevertheless we staked a relatively small amount, £150, on Mo/ Mohamed Mohamed and Kat/ Kathreya Kasisopa becoming the 12th and 13th Evictees at odds of 8/13. Polls had given us a good idea what might happen, and our bet came right when that pair were evicted the following day.  Result: £92 profit.

Tuesday, 19th August 2008 (Day 76)
When the nominees were announced and it was obvious that Nicole Cammack could never survive against Lisa Appleton and Sara Folino. So, as it was such a certainty, we staked £1000 on the blonde to go, and were rather surprised that bookies were offering the relatively decent odds of 1/8 (you stake £8 to make £1 profit). Nicole's odds subsequently went down to 1/100 on the Friday morning, and then to 1/500 just before the eviction i.e. if you staked £1000 you'd make just £2 profit, so basically the bookies thought it impossible that she might stay in the end. We expected Nicole to get around 80% in the public vote, but she was evicted with a massive 94% at the 10th Eviction, which consequently made us £125 (plus our stake back).  Result: £125 profit.

Wednesday, 13th August 2008 (Day 70)
The nominees had been announced the day before (it was Rachel Rice vs Stuart Pilkington) and it quickly became obvious that Rachel would survive. So, we put £600 on Stuart Pilkington to go at the odds of 1/8, and won a profit of £75 (plus our stake back) when he was evicted with 59% of the vote on the Friday night. Our Poll said 63%.  Result: £75 profit.

Wednesday, 6th August 2008 (Day 63)
The bookies 8th Eviction market didn't go live when the nominees were announced, but by the time it did the following day, we had a good idea that Stuart Pilkington would probably survive. As the odds were low (1/14) we had to stake a lot of money to make it worthwhile, sot we put 'a bag of sand' on Dale Howard becoming the 8th Evictee of Big Brother 9. Our bet paid off when he was evicted two days later, with 63% of the vote.  Result: £71 profit.

Thursday, 31st July 2008 (Day 57)
Things were different this week because the voting lines were open on the Wednesday and Thursday only, rather than the usual Tuesday to Friday period. The 7th Eviction betting market was available for a brief period on the Thursday, so we staked £300 on Luke Marsden to go at the odds of 1/4 (£1 profit for every £4 staked). Once again our main Poll was really accurate, because Luke left the following day having received 37% in the public vote (against eight other people), and our Poll said 38%.  Result £75 profit.

Tuesday, 22nd July 2008 (Day 48)
The nominees for the 6th Eviction had been announced earlier in the day, so in the evening we placed a £500 bet on Rebecca Shiner to go next at odds of 1/4. We hadn't bet on the 'Belinda' eviction the previous week, but were fairly sure from early Poll results that Bex would go this week. And we were right, because she got evicted with 65% of the vote even though she was up-against two other nominees. Our Poll was accurate to within 3% right from the start.  Result: £125 profit.

Friday, 18th July 2008 (Day 44)
Before the 5th Eviction had even taken place (Belinda Harris-Reid was kicked-out later that day), odds for the next eviction were available. So, we placed a speculative bet, trying to guess who might be 'up' and get sent home the following week. It was a total guess so we staked just £20 on Rebecca Shiner at 15/8 to become the next evictee. We fully expected to lose because such bets are a huge gamble, but we won nearly £40 plus our stake back when Bex was subsequently up-against Darnell Swallow and Mo, and got evicted the following Friday night.  Result: £38 profit.

Friday, 11th July 2008 (Day 37)
We'd just written a positive article in our news section about Dale's chances of winning, so it would have been mad not to back him at his current odds. Therefore, we put £40 on Dale Howard becoming the Overall Winner of Big Brother 9 at odds of 10/1. We stood to make a profit of £400 (plus our stake back), but we lost £40 in the end due to Dale's efforts to get himself put up for nomination. The idiot!  Result: £40 loss.

Wednesday, 9th July 2008 (Day 35)
The fourth-round nominees had been announced the day before, and by the Wednesday lunchtime it was clear that the public wanted Mario out. So, we staked £1000 on Mario Marconi to go at the lowish odds of 1/3, and returned over £1300 when he was evicted with 77% of the vote at the 4th Eviction.  Result: £333 profit.

Friday, 27th June 2008 (Day 23)
The bookies made Darnell second-favourite to win after his arguably admiral involvement in the Fight Night II shenanigans. So, we staked our second £25 Free Bet (we got one from Paddy Power and another one from Blue Square) on Darnell Swallow to Win Big Brother 9 at the odds of 5/1. If the albino songwriter had gone all the way we'd have made £125 (5 x the amount staked). Ultimately, though, Darnell didn't win the series but we lost nothing because it was a Free Bet.  Result: Neither a profit nor a loss.

Tuesday, 24th June 2008 (Day 20)
We used our Free £25 Bet to back Luke Marsden to Win, just in case his odds plummeted if his popularity started rising. So, we staked £25 at odds of 4/1 (£4 profit for every £1 staked), and would have made a profit of £100 if the bet had come right. However, we lost our stake when Luke was evicted at the 7th Eviction on Day 58, but we hadn't risked a penny because the bet was Free from one of the bookies listed in our Big Brother 11 Betting section.  Result: Neither a profit nor a loss.

2nd Bet: For our second bet of the day, we waited until the evening on the day that the nominees for the 2nd Eviction were announced, and backed Sylvia Barrie to go next. To be honest, it was a complete no-brainer and there was no reason to believe that the Polls, which had Sylvia at over 80% against Mo, would be wrong. Indeed, Sylvia left with over 90% in the public vote on the Friday night, so our £500 stake was returned along with a profit of £71 (the early odds were a low 1/7, but eventually drifted to 1/33).  Result: £71 profit.

Friday, 20th June 2008 (Day 16)
Feedback from fans hinted that Kat was the most popular housemate, and a Poll on our Home page confirmed it. So, we backed Kathreya Kasisopa to Win Big Brother 9 with a £40 stake at odds of 2/1. The odds were quite low given that the series still had 11 weeks to run, but we stood to return £120 if Kat had gone all the way. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Kat was the favourite to win most of the way through the series, we lost our stake when she was evicted at the Double Eviction in the final week of the show.  Result: £40 loss.

Monday, 9th June 2008 (Day 5)
After the four 'fakers' failed the wedding task and were put up for eviction, we staked £80 at 4/7 (£4 profit for every £7 staked) on Stephanie McMichael getting evicted. Early feedback said that the public were blaming her for the failure, however as the 1st Eviction approached it looked like Mario might be going due to a turnaround in public opinion. Steph did get evicted though, so we were okay in the end and won the bet. Phew! Result: £46 profit.