If you believe the gossip, it will be Johnny Depp and Philip Seymore Hoffman - playing The Riddler and the Penguin respectively. If you believe in choosing stars by democratic process (okay, actually just an online survey by Blockbuster), Johnny Depp would be the first choice, followed by Angelina Jolie as Catwoman. Really though, it is hard to imagine losing as a move watcher (or a prop bettor) if either Hoffman or Depp is cast for the role of villain, let alone both of them.

Then there is Eddie Murphy.....While Murphy's personal life may make him a very believable villain, his tendency to dwell more in the valley of bombs than in the Hollywood hills of blockbusters may make film makers shy away from him. Then again, the severe (albeit negative) response of Batman fans to this rumor could actually help drum up buzz for the film.

Bookmaker has the odds at:

Phillip Seymore Hoffman +100
Eddie Murphy +200
Johnny Depp +150

Labels: Batman Villain, betting, Eddie Murphy, Johnny Depp, Phillip Seymore Hoffman, prop bet

posted by Mary at 11:03 AM

Apparently, the ladies of Celebrity Apprentice 2 are such strong contenders that sportsbooks have quit taking bets on them. It would be hard to blame them for this choice, if you watched last week's show. The ladies were tough, tactical and organized while the guys seemed to be heavy on emotion and light on responsibility. When The Donald asked the ladies (the winning team) who the strongest and weakest links were, he got quick succinct answers, backed up with reasons and examples. When the same questions were posed to the men, he got something like "We all worked hard. I am not the type to throw people under the bus, but you are forcing me to...." Time will tell if these guys can woman up enough to go toe to toe with a team named after the goddess of war, but apparently the betting trends concerning the Rivers contingent and Anne Duke were enough to make sportsbooks wave the white flag of peace. Fortunately, they still have plenty of lines on other reality shows:

BetUs is taking bets on So You Think You Can Dance
Sportsbook is taking bets on American Idol

Both of them are taking bets on Dancing With The Stars

Labels: betting, Celebrity Apprentice, Clint Black, Deniss Rodman, Donald Trump, gambling, Joan Rivers, Reality Show, Sportbet

posted by Mary at 1:29 PM

The third time isn't always a charm, especially when it comes to divorce statistics. J Lo and Marc
Anthony are facing some tough odds, from sports books as well as divorce data. According to divorcerate.org the divorce rate for a third marriage is 73%. To be fair, while this is technically Anthony's (and J Lo's) third marriage, his first two marriages were to the same woman, so maybe he has slightly better odds of a 60% divorce rate for a second marriage. Then again, he has children by three different women, which may tip the scales back towards splitzville.

Reasons for the marriage to survive? Their twins and their combined $350 million dollar fortune may help them overcome these odds. Reasons to bet on J Lo and Anthony sticking it out? They only have to last through 2009 for you to cash in.

Bookmaker has the odds at

+120 Yes, they will get divorced in 2009
-180 No, they won't get divorced in 2009

Labels: betting, celebrities, divorce, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony

posted by Mary at 10:59 AM

As one of those few people lucky enough to be born and raised in Las Vegas, I've walked through many sportsbooks and seen all the different kinds of games being played on the big TVs. Truth be told, I'm not really one to watch a whole lot of sports. I find it a little boring sometimes, and who understands all that testosterone, anyway? Whenever I saw all those numbers up there for the odds, I had no idea what it all meant.

Every year, though, whenever the Oscars™ roll around, I always see a news story about one of the Vegas sportsbooks putting up odds on who is going to win—but you can't put any money on them. It's illegal to bet on entertainment events in Vegas. And I would notice that if I had put any money down, I probably would have won quite a bit of money.

But I had friends who were putting down real bets on real events online, at places like Bodog.com, BetOnSports.com, and Sports Interaction, and winning real money. They mentioned to me that these books also took bets on entertainment events all year long! I thought to myself, "Wow, I could really make some extra spending money betting on award shows, reality shows, and celebrity gossip!" If I just put down $5 or $10, I could win a nice chunk of change. I didn't have to sell my house to make a couple of bucks on a bet. And if I won, I could turn that money into more money by betting on other events.

So I decided to experiment. The Emmys were coming up, and my favorite show of all time, Lost, was up for Best Drama Series. I asked my sportsbook-savvy friend, Jocelyn, to explain what the odds meant, and I signed up at Bodog.com—which was really fast and really easy to do—and I put down $20 for Lost to win the Emmy. That night, I ended up winning $80! I couldn't believe it! Instead of making some kind of pool with my friends for who would win, I had a real sportsbook pay out my instinct to bet on my favorite show.

Now, every week, I budget out about $20 to bet on any of the lines that the sportsbooks have up. After while, I expect to have a nice little "purse" of money that I can spend on just about anything!

Jocelyn & I talk about entertainment betting all the time. She actually works in the sports gambling industry-- and has access to information on the best places to bet online, plus she loves Hollywood and entertainment just as much as I do. After we speculated about the Emmys, Survivor: Guatemala, The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, Kate Moss's cocaine scandal, and other shows and celebrity events, we started to wonder why only sporty boys get to have all the fun betting (and it is fun!), so we started this blog so we can both talk about the trashy behavior of celebrities and help the rest of us figure out how to get into the action of Hollywood betting.

Labels: betting, Bodog, how-to

posted by Kari at 11:14 AM