The front runners to lift the Glitterball Trophy are evenly backed by punters.
With the BBC’s hit celebrity contest Strictly Come Dancing drawing to a close this evening, the money is being evenly split between Stacey Dooley and Joe Sugg.
Documentarian Dooley and partner Kevin Clifton lead the running with the bookies, odds-on favourites across the board at a best price of 8/15. They’ve accrued 36.5% of bets on the market in the last 24 hours. Having improved hugely throughout the series, the presenter has impressed the judges and endeared herself to the public.
Meanwhile, YouTube star Joe Sugg and his partner Diane Buswell are 9/4 second favourites, with 37% of bets placed on them. The 27-year-old has 8 million subscribers on his YouTube channel and a 6 million strong Instagram following. With that backing, many fancy his chances in the final public vote tonight.
The other two finalists, popstars Faye Tozer (12/1) and Ashley Roberts (40/1) tail behind with bookies and punters. Both have picked up perfect scores with the judges going into the final but their dance background has done them few favours with the public.
Ashley Roberts has been particularly unpopular, struggling for votes and forced to dance for survival in the competition three weeks running.
Oddschecker spokesperson George Elek: “We’re seeing a flurry of betting activity on the Strictly final, but it’s almost impossible to split the two favourites. Though Stacey Dooley is by far the bookies’ choice, it might just come down to Joe Sugg’s huge following in the final result.”
