Betting sites have an estimated market of a milliard Euros per year, so there’s a war going out on the cyberspace. And it is possible to bet on anything. A young 24 years old French, who decided to keep his identity secretly said “I started to visit betting shops one year ago, I like football and cycling. I first visited them along with a friend who also likes bikes”.
Due to the Word cup and the “Tour de France”, betting shops had more work to cope with. Many of the regular costumers will restrain their betting behavior for the weekend, but having more interesting games going on, betting sites have been constantly visited.
In this hectic atmosphere, we can not stop thinking about the psychic octopus that became famous during World Cup, “Paul the Soccer Octopus”. He has its own profile at Facebook and his predictions have been very accurate. The odds of his choices been merely coincidences are low (1 in 64).
When Paul predicted Argentina’s defeat against Germany, some Argentinean octopus recipes were published over the internet. Oliver Walenciak (Paul’s keeper) energetically said “There are always people who want to eat our octopus but he is not shy and we are here to protect him as well. He will survive.”
Things became a bit more complicated to our eight-limbed friend when he predicted Spain’s victory over Germany. Germans who used to support and love Paul were now claiming Paul’s tentacles to be fried. As a matter of fact, Spanish prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, said on a radio show: “I am concerned for the octopus … I am thinking of sending him a protective team.”
Do you have players? We can handle them for you.
Paul’s latest predictions were broadcasted live in Germany, Spain and Netherlands last Friday. Local networks even interrupted their normal progammes in order to show Paul’s World Cup Champion. Despite repeated threats to his life, he chose Spain.
As a matter of fact, betting sites have experienced the “octopus factor”. After Paul’s vaticination, bets for Spain increased on a 10%.
There even were odds on Paul itself. Betting sites posted odds of -110 for the Final game of the World cup. Will Paul’s choice be correct?
So, now that the World Cup is over and we know who the World Champion is. We can sit down and relax and so could do Paul, at least for a while. It’s up to us to decide if next time we believe in him or not.
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