You Can Even Bet On I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here

David Ginola – Image source: Flickr

Many of those who like to bet on sports in the UK at Bet365 will consider this a form of horrid sacrilege. They pour over the form and the stats, make sensible choices based on serious criteria. So they tend to feel people putting a bet on reality television are somehow making fun of them. Sure everyone enjoys a flutter, but whilst inconsequential, sports still have some rules, some tangible basis. Unlike when you bet on I’m A Celebrity or any other reality television show.

Now, to be clear from the outset, there is nothing wrong with gambling on random. Casinos operate almost entirely on that principle. However, they’re not as random as they seem. A Roulette wheel isn’t going to come up “38 Yellow”. No one wins a hand of poker with six Queens. They provide a framework within which you can wager. Sports are much the same. They all have rules and norms. You can’t really say the same for a bet on I’m A Celebrity, can you?

Oh it has rules, and even goals of a sort, but in the end popularity is not something you can predict. What makes and breaks someone’s public image, the one that counts in reality TV, can be miniscule. We all know what you have to do to win a cup final or the Grand National, but to have people vote for you? That’s far more ineffable. So often, when you bet on I’m A Celebrity etc. at online betting sites in the UK like Bet365 you’re really just putting a wager on whimsy.

Is Politics Just Another Reality Popularity Contest? 

Obviously, this isn’t anything new. Reality TV might have arrived just recently, but putting a bet on a popularity contest isn’t. Oddly, however, people don’t quite see a bet on I’m A Celebrity as similar to a bet on politics. It is. Entirely. Alas, they just don’t see it. They believe because politics is a serious business, the odds on politics at Bet365 etc. are also serious. However, they’d have to admit that what shifts the odds on reality TV contestants is similarly wholly inestimable.

I’m A Celebrity 2021 Odds

• Arlene Phillips – 66/1
• Kadeena Cox – 25/1
• Matty Lee – 22/1
• Adam Woodyatt – 18/1
• Richard Madeley – 12/1
• Louise Minchin – 12/1
• Naughty Boy – 12/1
• Snoochie Shy – 11/1
• Simon Gregson – 8/1
• Danny Miller – 11/2
• Frankie Bridge – 9/2
• David Ginola – 9/4

So some who frequent online bookies in the UK like Bet365 will consider this all just a mockery. Not a mockery of politics, of popularity contests or even of gambling, but of the people betting. They might believe that if you’re going to wager on the whimsy of popularity, it shouldn’t involve a bet on I’m A Celebrity. Indeed, they may feel it distracts from the more important popularity contests you can find odds on at online sportsbook sites in the UK like Bet365. 

Bet365 Has Your Bet On I’m A Celebrity

So is reality television betting just bread and circuses? Another distraction from the popularity contests we ought to focus upon? Could this be a plot to dumb down the population and leave politics to do its dirty work in the dark? Well, possibly. Certainly more people will look at the reality TV odds at Bet365 than at those on politics right now. They’re attracted by the glitz and glamour of a bet on I’m A Celebrity, something politics, especially in the UK, rarely achieves.

“Popularity should be no scale for the election of politicians. If it would depend on popularity, Donald Duck and The Muppets would take seats in [the] senate.”

• Orson Welles

That’s why so many more people vote on reality TV shows than at the political polls. That’s a rather worrying problem. Mostly because eventually politics will learn from reality TV shows, and change its behavior accordingly. Donald Trump is perhaps an early adopter. Hence you can draw a direct line from taking advantage of UK gambling laws to bet on I’m A Celebrity to that awful dystopian future you see in sci-fi movies. Just don’t try to explain it to David Ginola.    

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We take a look at why some people instinctively dislike the idea that you can bet on I’m A Celebrity and other reality televisions shows.