What are the Strangest Things that People Bet On?
Gambling is one of the oldest pastimes we have as a species. The earliest dice have been dated back to before written history, in the Paleolithic era – a time you’d associate more closely with the invention of basic stone tools. Not bad, huh?
Suffice to say it’s come some way since the days of hunter-gatherers wagering a ham hock on whether the weather will take a bad turn, with modern society preferring a more civilised, online-focused, betting experience. But no fear, that’s not to say that a ham hock would be off the metaphorical cards.
Wagering on rain might be the more simple option considering some of the things that we’ve bet on over the past few years. Here we’ve got just a selection of some of the strangest things people have bet on.
Taylor Swift
Cue collective groans – but it’s hard to argue that Taylor Swift has made herself a brand as much as she has made herself a global music sensation. Getting away from her name is difficult if you spend a lot of time online.
Perhaps you’d imagine the chart placement of her next album, or the setlist of her record breaking Eras Tour to be here. Sorry to disappoint.
Betting on Swift goes from the moderately strange to pushing creepy, with betting available for everything from whether she’ll make the Jumbotron at the next Chiefs games (which she attends in support of her partner, Travis Kelce), to whether she’ll be pregnant by the end of the year.
It’s unsurprising someone who has been intentionally bundled up with stories that don’t even involve her because of her media strength can pull in such furor over even minor details of her life, although it’s probably not the kind of thing you can have much of an expert betting opinion on!
Election Results
As if Election Day wasn’t stressful enough, there are plenty of punters willing to place a bet on who will come out top dog.
The U.S election is by far and away the most popular of all political betting results, with a last-minute piece of legislation meaning US bettors were able to place bets on politics for the first time in 2024. One source estimates that around $1.7 billion was gambled on the 2024 election.
Odds for political results tend to fluctuate wildly as public sentiment shifts, scandals are revealed, policies are announced and even as results begin to come in.
It’s a dangerous area for bettors to traverse, with politics being so interlinked with the highest levels of government and prominent public figures. In 2024, a number of British politicians were subject to inquiries by the UK Gambling Commission over the date of the snap election, as they had placed bets on the election date just before it was announced.
This extended to police officers, and members from all three major political parties. Fortunately, none were ultimately charged for misconduct by the Met.
Music Charts
Taylor-Swift adjacent, but this section will otherwise find her comfortably absent, we promise!
Music charts and rankings are hot competition in many countries, especially around Christmas and the end of the year.
The UK has it’s famous Christmas #1 competition, with fans doing their best to push their favourite artists to the top, and bettors doing their best to predict which fanbase will come out on top!
Australia has another famous chart-topping event around the festive period – the Triple J Hottest 100.
If you’re a regular music listener, Triple J might ring a bell regardless of where you’re from in the world – live versions of popular songs are often performed at the Triple J studios and appear on Spotify or YouTube with that little ‘(Triple J version)’ addendum, occupying the same space in music as NPR’s Tiny Desk or BBC1’s Fire in the Booth.
The Triple J Hottest 100 is a culmination of all that brilliance. This is a public-voted opinion poll in Australia of the best Australian and alternative music artists of the year, and sparks fierce competition. Voting is ongoing at teh end of December and results are announced in the 4th weekend of January.
Triple J Hottest 100 betting is increasingly popular – especially among Australians – with Chappell Roan’s Good Luck, Babe! looking the likely leader to open 2025.
Poker Tournaments
Ok bros, we confess this might not seem too strange at first, but bear with us here.
Becoming a professional poker player is no joke – it’s a pretty well-paying job, but there also aren’t many jobs where you can spend a week doing it and walk away poorer than you came in.
Betting on poker tournament is weirdly meta – gambling on the gamblers – and suffice to say it’s got the fanbase built in. The WSOP (World Series of Poker) is unsurprisingly the biggest draw, being the biggest poker tournament with the biggest prizepool.
One of the most interesting things about betting on poker tournaments is how staggeringly high your returns are, even on the favourites. Find another sport where the favourite comes in at 80/1, we dare you.
That’s not to say it’s easy money by any means. Not only are you betting on the form of all the players, they themselves are gambling and hoping for good luck. Daniel Negreanu might beat your cousin who swears he’s great at poker if he’s being dealt a two-seven offsuit all night, but against top level competition, sometimes you just need a good hand to show up.
