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The Booker Prize Betting
Unleash the bibliophile in you and step into the exciting world of literary betting as we delve into the nuanced art of betting on the illustrious Booker Prize. This fascinating gamble, seen as a thrilling subplot in the vast narrative of world literature, adds a dash of intrigue to the prestigious Booker Prize suitably functioning as the literary equivalent of Grand National or Kentucky Derby betting.
Booker Prize Key Dates
In this article, we will present the shortlist of this year’s aspiring nominees, destined to be added to the pantheon of literary greats. We further review the past laureates of this esteemed literature award, essentially providing a literary and betting guide to the Booker Prize, often rightly considered as the ‘Ultimate Literary Game of Thrones’.
Current Booker Prize Betting Odds (Shortlist Stage)
Below are the latest betting odds correct as of 27th September 2023, subsequent to the shortlist announcement on 21st September - The list of 13 in the long list has been cut to the final 6
| Booker Prize 2023 Winner | Odds | Probability |
|---|---|---|
| Paul Lynch - Prophet Song | 2/1 | 33.30% |
| Paul Murray - The Bee Sting | 5/2 | 28.60% |
| Chetna Maroo - Western Lane | 3/1 | 25.00% |
| Sarah Bernstein - Study for Obedience | 6/1 | 14.30% |
| Jonathon Escoffery - If I Survive You | 6/1 | 14.30% |
| Paul Harding - This Other Eden | 6/1 | 14.30% |
For the most up to date information and market moves, take a look at our betting news feed which will have the latest coverage.
Booker Prize 2023 Betting Odds: Tan Twan Eng’s novel The House of Doors is 2/1 favourite to win this year's Booker Prize after longlist announced!
Booker Prize 2025 Contenders (Shortlist)
With Samathan Harvey now crowned Booker Prize Winner for 2024, wth her sci-fi novel Orbital on 12th November, the long wait for the 2025 edition begins
The Booker Prize Betting News Diary Timeline
The betting for The Booker Prize is normally available after the longlist is revealed and then updated when the final six on the shortlist are announced. Often the major bookies disagree on a favourite and there is plenty of movement in the Booker Prize Odds.
Here is a round-up of the Booker Prize Betting News from our OLBG News feed.
6th September 2024
Booker Prize 2024 Betting Odds: Percival Everett is 5/2 favourite to win this year's Booker Prize with six-book shortlist coming this month!
15th May 2024
International Booker Prize Betting Odds: Brazilian writer Itamar Vieira Junior is now 6/4 to win this year's International Booker Prize as bookies offer odds!
16th November 2023
Booker Prize 2023 Betting Odds: Paul Lynch's Prophet Song remains CLEAR FAVOURITE to win the Booker Prize with announcement at end of this month!
15th August 2023
Booker Prize 2023 Betting Odds: Tan Twan Eng’s novel The House of Doors is 2/1 favourite to win this year's Booker Prize after longlist announced!
12th October 2022
Booker Prize 2022 Betting Odds: Elizabeth Strout's 'Oh William!' now into 3/1 favourite with bookmakers to win this year's Booker Prize Award!
Elizabeth Strout is now the bookmaker's favourite to win this year's Booker Prize Award ahead of next week's event. The 2022 Booker Prize winner will be awarded on 17th October with the first public event with the winner set for Thursday 20th at Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall. Smarkets have made Elizabeth Strout's 'Oh William!' the 3/1 favourite just ahead of 'The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida' by Shahan Karunatilaka.
1st September 2022
Booker Prize 2022 Betting Odds: Alan Garner's Treacle Walker REMAINS 5/1 favourite with betting sites to win this year's award!
Alan Garner's Treacle Walker is now the 5/1 favourite with betting sites to win the 2022 Booker Prize Award. Walker's booked has received massive critical acclaim with one report in the Guardian calling it the "book of a lifetime". Maddie Mortimer's Maps of our Spectacular Bodies is joint-favourite at 5/1 with some betting sites. Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout is just behind in the betting market with Bet365 at 6/1, with 13 candidates in the odds. Those 13 candidates will be whittled down to just 6 nominees next week on the 6th of September.
4th August 2022
Booker Prize 2022 Betting Odds: Alan Garner's Treacle Walker is the 9/2 favourite to win this year's award!
Alan Garner's Treacle Walker is now the 9/2 favourite with bookmakers to win the 2022 Booker Prize Award. Walker's book has received massive critical acclaim with one report in the Guardian calling it the "book of a lifetime". Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout is just behind in the betting market at 5/1, with 13 candidates in the odds. Bet365 have a full list of odds available for the Prize, with each longlist nominee given odds.
15th September 2021
Damon Galgut is cut to 5/2 with Bookmakers with a Promise of Booker Prize Glory
There were 7 disappointed authors from the Booker prize betting yesterday as their chances were killed off with the final shortlist of 6 being announced. The biggest to have been dropped being Kazuo Ishiguru's Klara and the Sun which had been Third Favourite at the shortlist 13 stage. Rachel Cusk's Second Place will not be gaining that position this year either after being dropped. Damon Galgut's 'The Promise' remains the favourite to win at 5/2 with bookmakers, closely followed by Richard Power's highly acclaimed 'Bewilderment' at 3/1, the remainder of the odds suggest this is rather a two-horse-race.
31st August 2021
Bookmakers Make Kazuo Ishiguro 6/1 3rd Favourite to Land Second Booker Prize after 32 years!
As August comes to a close there are 13 excited authors on the Booker prize long list waiting expectedly and hoping their publication is not one of the seven eliminated as the Booker prize shortlist is announced on 14th September. There are currently there joint-favourites all being offered by Bookmakers at the same 11/2 odds to win the prize including Klara and the Sun from Kazuo Ishiguro. The Japanese-born British author has had multiple nominations in his career and has a previous booker prize win under his belt for 'Remains of the Day' back in 1989. Klara and the Sun is currently 11/2 to win representing a 15% chance as per bookmakers' odds. There is little to choose between the given probabilities of the expected 6 books to make the shortlist on 14th September.
What is Booker Prize Betting?
Every year since 1969 there has been a Booker Prize Literary Award. In recent times the bookmakers have latched on to the interest the prize generates and started offering betting odds on the novels.
Booker Prize Betting Markets
The main market that the majority of the best betting sites will have is selecting the Booker Prize winner.
However other markets can be offered or you can ask directly for prices on a range of options
- Choose the English language novel that will win the Booker Prize this year.
- Will the Booker Prize be won by someone born in the United Kingdom?
- Will the Booker Prize be won by a debut novelist?
How To Place A Booker Prize Bet
- Once at the bookmakers scroll to the specials market and find Booker Prize Betting
- Here you will see the list of books being offered as options to bet on.
- All you need do is click on your selection.
- This will open up the bet slip, at which point you will see confirmation of the betting odds being offered
- Now you choose your stake - most betting sites will show you how much you can expect to have returned if your prediction is correct.
- If you are happy, simply hit, PLACE BET, to confirm your selection, stake, and bet.
- You will be given a receipt for your bet and it will appear in your open bets in your account details.
- Then it's just a matter of waiting to see which of the books is chosen as the winner.
The Booker Prize Winners 1969-2024
| Year | Winner | Author | Novel | Born |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Winner | Shehan Karunatilaka | The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida | Sri Lanka |
| 2021 | Winner | Damon Galgut | The Promise | South Africa |
| 2020 | Winner | Douglas Stuart | Shuggie Bain | Scotland |
| 2019 | Joint Winner | Margaret Atwood | The Testaments | Canada |
| 2019 | Joint Winner | Bernardine Evaristo | Girl, Woman, Other | England |
| 2018 | Winner | Anna Burns | Milkman | Northern Ireland |
| 2017 | Winner | George Saunders | Lincoln in the Bardo | USA |
| 2016 | Winner | Paul Beatty | The Sellout | USA |
| 2015 | Winner | Marlon James | A Brief History of Seven Killings | Jamaica |
| 2014 | Winner | Richard Flanagan | The Narrow Road to the Deep North | Australia |
| 2013 | Winner | Eleanor Catton | The Luminaries | Canada |
| 2012 | Winner | Hilary Mantel | Bring Up the Bodies | England |
| 2011 | Winner | Julian Barnes | The Sense of an Ending | England |
| 2010 | Winner | Howard Jacobson | The Finkler Question | England |
| 2009 | Winner | Hilary Mantel | Wolf Hall | England |
| 2008 | Winner | Aravind Adiga | The White Tiger | India |
| 2007 | Winner | Anne Enright | The Gathering | Ireland |
| 2006 | Winner | Kiran Desai | The Inheritance of Loss | India |
| 2005 | Winner | John Banville | The Sea | Ireland |
| 2004 | Winner | Alan Hollinghurst | The Line of Beauty | England |
| 2003 | Winner | DBC Pierre | Vernon God Little | Australia |
| 2002 | Winner | Yann Martel | Life of Pi | Spain |
| 2001 | Winner | Peter Carey | True History of the Kelly Gang | Australia |
| 2000 | Winner | Margaret Atwood | The Blind Assassin | Canada |
| 1999 | Winner | J. M. Coetzee | Disgrace | South Africa |
| 1998 | Winner | Ian McEwan | Amsterdam | England |
| 1997 | Winner | Arundhati Roy | The God of Small Things | India |
| 1996 | Winner | Graham Swift | Last Orders | England |
| 1995 | Winner | Pat Barker | The Ghost Road | England |
| 1994 | Winner | James Kelman | How late it was, how late | Scotland |
| 1993 | Winner | Roddy Doyle | Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha | Ireland |
| 1992 | Joint Winner | Michael Ondaatje | The English Patient | Sri Lanka |
| 1992 | Joint Winner | Barry Unsworth | Sacred Hunger | England |
| 1991 | Winner | Ben Okri | The Famished Road | Nigeria |
| 1990 | Winner | A. S. Byatt | Possession: A Romance | England |
| 1989 | Winner | Kazuo Ishiguro | The Remains of the Day | Japan |
| 1988 | Winner | Peter Carey | Oscar and Lucinda | Australia |
| 1987 | Winner | Penelope Lively | Moon Tiger | Egypt |
| 1986 | Winner | Kingsley Amis | The Old Devils | England |
| 1985 | Winner | Keri Hulme | The Bone People | New Zealand |
| 1984 | Winner | Anita Brookner | Hotel du Lac | England |
| 1983 | Winner | J. M. Coetzee | Life & Times of Michael K | South Africa |
| 1982 | Winner | Thomas Keneally | Schindler's Ark | Australia |
| 1981 | Winner | Salman Rushdie | Midnight's Children | India |
| 1980 | Winner | William Golding | Rites of Passage | England |
| 1979 | Winner | Penelope Fitzgerald | Offshore | England |
| 1978 | Winner | Iris Murdoch | The Sea, the Sea | Ireland |
| 1977 | Winner | Paul Scott | Staying On | England |
| 1976 | Winner | David Storey | Saville | England |
| 1975 | Winner | Ruth Prawer Jhabvala | Heat and Dust | Germany |
| 1974 | Joint Winner | Nadine Gordimer | The Conservationist | South Africa |
| 1974 | Joint Winner | Stanley Middleton | Holiday | England |
| 1973 | Winner | J. G. Farrell | The Siege of Krishnapur | England |
| 1972 | Winner | John Berger | G. | France |
| 1971 | Winner | V. S. Naipaul | In a Free State | Trinidad & Tobago |
| 1970 | Winner | Bernice Rubens | The Elected Member | Wales |
| 1970 | Winner | J. G. Farrell | Troubles | England |
| 1969 | Winner | P. H. Newby | Something to Answer For | England |
Booker Prize Nationality of Winners
The Booker Prize is a truly international award as you can see by the winners below.
English Booker Prize Winners
| Country of Birth | Wins |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 29 |
| Australia | 5 |
| Canada | 4 |
| Ireland | 3 |
| India | 3 |
| South Africa | 3 |
| New Zealand | 2 |
| USA | 2 |
| France | 1 |
| Jamaica | 1 |
| Sri Lanka | 1 |
| Nigeria | 1 |
More Than One Winner
The Booker Prize Statistics
It can help our booker prize betting decisions to research various aspects of previous booker prize winners.
| Genre | Booker Prize Percentage |
|---|---|
| Historical fiction | 36% |
| Fiction | 27% |
| Psychological Fiction | 11% |
| Historical Metafiction | 4% |
| Domestic Fiction | 4% |
| Dark Comedy | 4% |
| Philosophical, Biography, Mystery, Comic | 14% |
Five authors have won the Booker Prize on two occasions.
| Author | Title & Year |
|---|---|
| Margaret Attwood | 2019 Testaments & 2000 The Blind Assasin |
| Hilary Mantel | 2009 Wolf Hall & 2012 Bring Out The Bodies |
| Peter Carey | 1988 Oscar and Lucinda & 2001 True History Of the Kelly Gang |
| JM Coetzee | 1983 Life and Times Of Michael K & 1999 Disgrace |
| JG Farrell | 1973 The Siege of Krishnapur & 2010 The Troubles |
The Booker Prize Historical Betting Odds
To give you some insight into betting odds and percentages here are the betting odds prior to the winner being announced.
2022
| Author | Title | Betting Odds | Bookmakers Percentage Chance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alan Garner | Treacle Walker | 4.0 or 3/1 | 25% |
| Elizabeth Strout | Oh William! | 4.5 or 7/2 | 22.22% |
| NoViolet Bulawayo | Glory | 4.5 or 7/2 | 22.22% |
| Shehan Karunatilaka (Winner) | The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida | 6.0 or 5/1 | 16.67% |
| Claire Keegan | Small Things Like These | 6.0 or 5/1 | 16.67% |
| Percival Everett | The Trees | 6.5 or 11/2 | 15.38% |
2021
| Author | Title | Betting Odds | Bookmakers Percentage Chance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Damon Galgut (Winner) | The Promise | 2.75 or 2/1 | 36.36% |
| Nadifa Mohamed | The Fortune Men | 3.0 or 2/1 | 33.33% |
| Maggie Shipstead | Great Circle | 3.75 or 11/4 | 26.67% |
| Richard Powers | Bewilderment | 8.0 or 7/1 | 12.50% |
| Anuk Arudpragasam | A Passage North | 10.0 or 9/1 | 10.00% |
| Patricia Lockwood | No One Is Talking About This | 10.0 or 9/1 | 10.00% |
2020
| Author | Title | Betting Odds | Bookmakers Percentage Chance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas Stuart (Winner) | Shuggie Bain | 4.5 or 7/2 @ Ladbrokes | 22.22% |
| Maaza Mengiste | The Shadow King | 5.0 or 4/1 @ Ladbrokes | 20.67% |
| Tsitsi Dangarembga | This Mournable Body | 5.0 or 4/1 @ Paddy Power | 20.00% |
| Brandon Taylor | Real Life | 7.0 or 6/1 @Paddy Power | 14.27% |
| Diane Cook | The New Wilderness | 9.0 or 8/1 @ Ladbrokes | 11.11% |
| Avni Doshi | Burnt Sugar | 13.00 or 12/1@ Ladbrokes | 7.69% |
International Booker Prize Winner 2022
The winner was announced last year as The Tomb Of The Sand by Geetanjali Shree translated by Daisy Rockwell. In 2021 it was At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop and translated by Anna Moschovakis.
The £50,000 International Booker Prize money is equally split between the author and translator.
With jury voting, it will always be a subjective opinion, and with human beings prone to emotion the most moving novel often seems to do well.
The Booker Prize Controversy
Since the Booker Prize was created in 1969 it has seen its fair share of controversy with both at times judges and authors questioning the fairness of the award and whether it is appropriate to rate books.
In 2019 the judges went off message by awarding the prize to two authors, despite being told that this was against the Booker rules.
In June 2020 there was another literary furore when the Booker Foundation Vice President Lady Nicholson was removed from her honorary position.
The Peer had been criticized by writers who accused her of homophobia.
Authors cited her for voting against the Same-Sex Marriage Bill, and for as some saw it her controversial comments on social media in relation to the trans community.
FAQ
Booker Prize FAQ
How long have we been able to bet on the Booker Prize?
Booker Prize Betting has been available since 2015, the odds tend to be on offer from the biggest betting sites.
What month do we first get Booker Prize Odds?
The Booker Prize odds are normally available when the long list is announced, (In 2022 it was the end of July)
What year was the Booker Prize first awarded?
1969 saw the Inaugural Booker Prize award.
Who was the first winner of the Booker Prize?
P.H Newby, his winning novel was titled Something to Answer For. He was prolific, writing more than 25 fiction and non-fiction books.
Who is the Oldest Booker Prize winner?
The oldest Booker Prize winner was Margaret Attwood.
She was 79 when she shared the Booker Prize in 2019 for her novel The Testaments.
This was a sequel to the now better known The Handmaid's Tale.
Who is the Youngest Booker Prize winner?
The youngest Booker Prize Winner is Eleanor Catton, she was just 28 when she won in 2013 for The Luminaries, a complex and lengthy mystery.
