Britain greets new prince in old style: by placing a bet

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April 24, 2018 9:18 PM

LONDON — A casual observer outside the hospital for the birth of Britain’s new prince could have been forgiven for thinking that the event was hosted by Ladbrokes Coral, the country’s biggest betting company.

As the Duchess of Cambridge labored in the Lindo Ward, an aircraft hired by Ladbrokes circled low overhead, towing a banner listing odds on the baby’s name.

Half a dozen uniformed employees of Ladbrokes circulated among the scrum of tourists and reporters, handing out tea, coffee and plastic flutes of sparkling wine.

From roughly 9 a.m. until about 6 p.m., a 23-year-old public relations representative for Ladbrokes, Alex Apati, stood opposite the maternity ward, updating the odds on a chalkboard. As the day wore on, this became a discussion of the name Arthur (5-to-1) eclipsing its nearest competitors, James (8-1), Albert (12-1), Philip (16-1) and Thomas (20-1).

Apati looked tired; the previous night he had programmed his alarm to ring every two hours, afraid that the duchess would go into labor without him. “Arthur is still the clear favorite,” he said. “Arthur is running away.”

As lunchtime approached, he grew increasingly emphatic. “The sheer amount that was taken on Arthur has forced us to cut it to 2-to-1,” he said. “So, yeah, I have no idea why so many people are confident in Arthur.”

The participation of bookmakers at a royal birth has become a ritual.

By comparison to sports-betting pools, interest in names is not huge — amounting to roughly 100,000 individual bets, and about a quarter million pounds, or $350,000, said Jessica Bridge, the head of public relations for sports and news at Ladbrokes. The pool stands out because it is about 70 percent female and because the bets tend to be small ones, made by once-a-year betters who “enjoy a wee flutter on events that take over the entire nation,” Bridge said.

“Novelty bets” — on the color of the queen’s hat, for example — help bookmakers to rehabilitate their reputations, said Leighton Vaughan Williams, director of the Betting Research Unit at Nottingham Business School.

“It’s a positive spin on bookmaking in general,” Vaughan Willams said. “It gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling about betting, that it is a fun thing to do. It’s not a new thing. But it’s really a public relations exercise.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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