Saturday, July 8, 2006

World Cup betting fish is beating human punters

There is a knife edge betting contest (proceeds to charidee, of course) going on in the Guardian World Cup section.

Everyday of the tournament, the fish and the People make a £10 charity bet. Both were given a £250 kitty at the start. So far the fish, called 'Der Kaiser', is ahead. "He predicted Italy and Germany would be 0-0 after 90 minutes and won himself £55, taking his total winnings to £378.83. Homo sapiens struck back last night, after they said France would beat Portugal by a single goal, but still trail Der Kaiser with £365.98."

The fish by the way, can be seen live here. It is a "sunset wagtail platy fish, with distinctive black, red and gold colouring." The "people" it competes with are those who comment on the Guardian betting web pages.

I presume that the betting inclinations of the fish are surmised from which number he swims over when a question is asked. You will notice that he has been given a world cup trophy and a football in his tank, to keep him in the mood.

Today, the fish is betting that France will win the final in 90 minutes by a margin of two or more goals at 11-2. The combined wisdom of the people are betting that Italy will win the final in 90 minutes by one goal at 14-5.

It will be fascinating to see whether the fish is victorious tomorrow.

3 comments:

  1. Is it time we banned football? I'm thinking role models here. As a non-fan I've not watched much of the World Cup but the bits I've seen seem to be characterised by cheating, agression and bad sportsmanship on an unprecedented scale. The idea that people like Rooney and Beckham are, or at least were, idolised by young males horrifies me. I've watched bits of the World Cup, and the levels of cheating are horrifying. Should we be encouraging young people to get involved with football? I think not.

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