Sports Personality Of The Year 2018

[LustForLeith]

Hi folks,

This is a nightmare of a field to predict. It seemed that Antony Joshua was favourite right up until Mo Farah was announced as the surprise winner this year!

Losing track of days but I’m sure very recently Phil Taylor was about 50/1. As he’s about to play in the final of his final ever championship he’s now down to 4/1.

However darts doesn’t tend to feature highly in the awards. Wouldn it be unfair to say they might create a Lifetime Achievment award for Taylor instead?

If you’re feeling brave you can still get 10/1 in some places.

[garlicsauce]

Crazy SPOTY last year lustforleith, it will be interesting this year to see what happens.

[stereoman]

Would be stunned if Phil Taylor went 'wire-to-wire' and won this although 2018 is only 20 hours old (GMT!) and obviously would be the outstanding candidate if he beats Rob Cross.

It's a World Cup and Winter Olympics year so the random person who manages to snag a gold medal in Pyeongchang, South Korea will very likely be amongst the nominees but will not win.

A lot of snooker fans were not pleased when Ronnie O'Sullivan was snubbed in 2017. Win a sixth world title an then launch a campaign for him to win BBC SPOTY then!

[LustForLeith]

Taylor didn’t get the fairytale win.

But you’d be hoping that his dominance of the sport gets him some sort of recognition?

I dint think the actual ceremony really knows what it is. Okay, it’s a popularity contest but are they right candidates being shortlisted in the first place?!

[stereoman]

Kyle Edmund making a little bit of history as only the third British man since 1985 to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/42764304

I don't see any odds though for him and bookies may be bullish enough not to be too bothered considering Kyle is facing Gregor Dimitrov.

[jaydubs]

Now in the semi

[stereoman]

Lizzy Yarnold is as ridiculously low as 6/1 but as high as 14/1.

https://www.oddschecker.com/insight/specials/20180217-double-olympic-champion-lizzy-yarnold-the-hot-pick-for-2018-sports-personality

She will likely be pimped by the BBC to possibly get at least third place considering she is the first ever British back-to-back Winter Olympics champion.

She should improve on her sixth place from four years ago...

https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_BBC_Sports_Personality_of_the_Year_Award

...but she very likely has to maintain presence in the public consciousness all the way between now and December.

On the other hand, she doesn't and only has to get 80k people or so to remember to vote for her in a 10 minute or so timeframe on a Sunday night in December but they still gotta remember to do that!

[stereoman]

Anthony Joshua is as low as 2/1 after a mostly underwhelming albeit unanimous points victory over Joseph Parker.

Feel Joshua has to KO his next opponent. If Tyson Fury is somehow next then possibly the winner may ignite a spark under folks who vote for BBC SPotY. As it is, it's quite possibly Deontay Wilder
next for Joshua in late 2018 and that might not be enough to get folks excited.

Not a lot else in the first three months that's happened apart from um, Lizzy Yarnold.

[LustForLeith]

Do you know who I was thinking of? Ian Poulter?

I don’t think he’ll win the Masters but that was a great performance at the weekend. If he can get himself in there or thereabouts then he’s a shout for the Ryder Cup team. And if he plays like we know he can in that then..!

I’ve onlh seen odds on Skybet for him and he’s 100/1.

[garlicsauce]

Love Poults, epitomises everything about the Ryder Cup for me. Would have him in my team every time! If he goes well this year, who knows. Be nice at that price!

[LustForLeith]

Love Poults, epitomises everything about the Ryder Cup for me. Would have him in my team every time! If he goes well this year, who knows. Be nice at that price!

He’s 50/1 at Ladbrokes!

Tempting...

[stereoman]

Some are anticipating Rory McIlroy will win the Masters and the bookies have reacted accordingly by generally making him as low as 8/1 second/third favourite ahead of/behind Harry Kane depending which bookie you're looking at.

He may get his due like Mo Farah did last year.

Lewis Hamilton has started off awful but whether he can turn it around like he did last year, who knows? Don't think the tax dodger will ever win BBC SPotY again.