Over the past 3 years, novelty betting, particularly TV novelty betting, has exploded. Thanks to TV successes Love Island, The Apprentice, Celebrity Big Brother, X-Factor and I’m a Celebrity. Reality TV contests are the best and most popular shows on TV at the moment so the rise in TV betting was always going to happen.

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How Novelty Betting Got Started

Novelty Betting has always been around without any of us even realising it. For instance, you can bet on the name or gender of a royal baby or in the past, the colour of the Queens hat at Ascot. There was even a phonomial bet back in 1964 by David Threlfall, UK who placed a bet on man reaching the moon before December 31st 1971, now that’s a bet!

For certain, Novelty Betting has steadily risen over the decades and is now very popular among regular bettors. As well as those who don’t even consider themselves bettors, the ones who place a bet on something fun once or twice a year kind of people.

Betting is all about trying to predict the result or future outcome successfully, the combination of a rise of online gambling and betting, plus reality and live TV has boosted this.

Best Places To Place a Novelty Bet

Novelty Betting is still relatively small in comparison to sports betting, and it can also be very territory-restricted; for instance, an online betting site based in Italy may not take your bet on, say, the colour of the Queen’s hat at Ascot since, culturally, they may not know how to calculate the odds. Some online bookies won’t take novelty bets simply because they see them as too risky.

Usually, only larger and more established online betting sites or UK-focused sites offer Novelty Betting. Since some bets may be placed many years in advance, what year will Prince Charles become King? You need a highly reliable bookmaker and one that’s likely to be around in the future, so if your bet turns out to be a winner, you can claim your winnings.

These are, without a doubt the best novelty betting sites:

1. Bet365
2. Boyle Sports
3. Paddy Power
4. Betfred
5. Ladbrokes
6. William Hill

The Best Novelty Bet Ever

What a punt this was! I have to say the best novelty bet has to be for me, “man reaching the moon before December 31st 1971”.

At the time, the only location you could place a bet was at a high street bookies. Once upon a time, there were many to choose from, including William Hill, who took this monumental bet.

William Hill viewed the likelihood of man reaching the moon by 1971 as so unlikely that they offered odds of 1000/1.

The official betting terms were: “for any man, woman or child, from any nation on Earth, being on the Moon, or any other planet, star or heavenly body of comparable distance from Earth, before January 1971.”

Consider the year, back in 1964, which was a life-changing amount of money. In 1964, a pint outside London was approximately 1/3d (6.5p); in 2024, you’re looking at around £4.50. If you wanted to buy a three-bedroom house in London, the average price was £2,430.

Mr. Threlfall placed the winning bet as a 20-year-old and cashed in 7 years later. This lucky punter was paid out live on TV to the tune of what would be worth £250,000 today.