Odds on Avatar Plummet
The BAFTAs took place on Sunday night and surprisingly the cinema mogul Avatar, although not expected to do extremely well, only walked away with two of its eight nominations. It’s most direct competition at both BAFTAs and Oscars, The Hurt Locker, took six. Unsurprisingly one of Avatar’s gongs was for Best Special Visual Effects, but ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow beat Titanic director James Cameron to the Best Director title. This was not unlikely, but the greater achievement is The Hurt Locker’s win of Best Film, for which it was close in odds to Avatar.
Having won the Best Film BAFTA, odds on The Hurt Locker at the Oscars have soured, making it the favourite to win the same title again. Its best odds are now at 10/11 to win from BlueSQ, 888Sport and Ladbrokes. Avatar maintains a close second though, with some bookies even offering the same odds. The competition is now fiercer than ever, and the outcome even harder to predict, although out of their nine nominations each both film are likely to make a huge impact.
Bigelow’s odds on winning Best Director at the Academy Awards have increased to a greater lead above Cameron, now at their best from Ladbrokes, Coral and William Hill at 1/3 with Cameron at 9/4. It really is primarily a two horse race in these two categories now, with other nominees trailing behind the behemoths. Bwin.com offers odds of 1/41 on either The Hurt Locker or Avatar to win Best Film, with only 9/1 on any of the other nominees. There are also odds available from Bwin.com on whether the winner of Best Film and Best Director will be the same; either Cameron or Bigelow for both. Currently the odds favour different winners at 4/5, in contrast to 9/10 on one of the couple winning both.
All odds correct at time of writing and are subject to change
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