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[sonycowboy]

:lol

Gamble today at: http://www.ladbrokes.com/lbr_sports...SPECIALS&class_id=210000105&type_id=210001423

IT’S INCREDIBLE!
Games Press 15:30 23/11/2004

Tuesday 23 November 2004/... After a hectic week in the nation's betting shops for the "Official Computer and Video Games Christmas Number One" slot, a new contender has come to the fore. ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) and Ladbrokes, the UK's favourite bookmaker has today confirmed that The Incredibles video game has been given odds of 8/1, moving it up towards the new favourite, GTA: San Andreas.

"It's definitely heating up out there," said Roger Bennett, director general of ELSPA. "Successful movie releases always have a positive impact on video games sales and Pixar titles have performed amazing well in the past. However, it's still anyone's game at this stage."

David McMorrow, Ladbrokes Marketing Manager said: "We've been taken a little by surprise by the interest shown in The Incredibles. We posted odds of 16/1 on Monday, had to cut the price overnight to 8/1 and this is bound to drop even further. Bearing in mind that last year's winner came from out of nowhere, then we think there is a good chance we could be looking at the 2004 winner. Especially when you look at all the hype the movie is generating."

The revised odds (as at 09:00 today) for the top ten titles, compiled by Ladbrokes in association with ELSPA, are:

7/4 - GTA: San Andreas

3/1 - Need For Speed: Underground 2

5/1 - Call of Duty: Finest Hour

5/1 - GoldenEye: Rogue Agent

6/1 - Half Life 2

7/1 - Halo 2

8/1 - The Incredibles

25/1 - Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within

25/1 - SingStar: Party

25/1 - The Getaway: Black Monday

Prices correct at time of writing and subject to change.

Ladbrokes Rules apply.

Combined multi-format sales will count in the week running up to Christmas.

Ladbrokes will take the final result from ELSPA/ChartTrack.

These prices are available through Ladbrokes shops, over the phone and at www.ladbrokes.com

EDITORS NOTES

About ELSPA - http://www.elspa.com

 

[bishoptl]

My God. This is the greatest thing ever for GAF. Put your money where your mouth is, fannies!

 

[WarPig]

This isn't actually as surprising as it might be, because the UK oddsmaking industry will let you bet on damn near anything, but it's still pretty whacko.

DFS.

 

[ManDudeChild]

This isn't actually as surprising as it might be, because the UK oddsmaking industry will let you bet on damn near anything, but it's still pretty whacko.

DFS.

Plus, they did this last year too.

 

[sonycowboy]

This isn't actually as surprising as it might be, because the UK oddsmaking industry will let you bet on damn near anything, but it's still pretty whacko.

DFS.

Which city will host the 2012 Olympics?

Paris 2/5
London 3/1
Madrid 6/1
New York 14/1
Moscow 33/1

 

[WarPig]

Plus, they did this last year too.

No kidding? Missed it the first time.

I'm guessing it's all just a publicity stunt put on by ELSPA anyway, but it's a pretty fun idea. And they're only taking the sales figures from one week into account, so it's not quite as much of a shoe-in for San Andreas as it might be.

I'd still bet on GTA, though. Got a chance to almost double your money there.

DFS.

 

[B E N K E]

It's only one week so release date has A LOT to do with it. Any big title that slips and releases that week will have a great chance of taking it.

 

[sonycowboy]

It's only one week so release date has A LOT to do with it. Any big title that slips and releases that week will have a great chance of taking it.

I say Microsoft drops Halo 2 to $19.99 and ...

1) Sells a ton of Halo 2 copies thus exposing the UK to Halo 2 goodness for next gen
2) Sells many more tons of Xboxen (literally) to those buyers
3) Lays down an extra billion on Halo 2 for the week and takes home $8 billion for their trouble.

:lol

 

[The Abominable Snowman]

We should hold a similar thing, except with points. This VBulletin system has a points system built-in, does it not?

Start us off with 1000 points and let us bet it allll!

 

[Gahiggidy]

I'd rather see an open-market, aka the Hollywood Stock Exchange.

Besides being fun, it would be a good way of predicting the potential sales of gamming product. It'd be alot more accurate than the way retailers decide on how much to stock based on "buzz".

 

[bunkum]

I had a little flutter a last week, I also mentioned it to a few other peeps and they did the same, the odds have changed quite a bit since then 7-1 GTA: SA was a steal.

Monday 15 November 2004

4/1 (joint favourite) - Call of Duty: Finest Hour
4/1 (joint favourite) - GoldenEye: Rogue Agent
7/1 - GTA: San Andreas
7/1 - Need For Speed: Underground 2
8/1 - Halo 2
10/1 - FIFA 2005
10/1 - Burnout 3: Takedown
10/1 - The Getaway: Black Monday
12/1 - Tony Hawk: Underground 2
16/1 - Half Life 2
20/1 - Pro Evolution Soccer 4
20/1 - WWE: Smackdown vs Raw
25/1 - SingStar: Party
25/1 - Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within
33/1 - Star Wars: Battlefront
33/1 - Lord of the Rings: The Third Age
33/1 - The Urbz
33/1 - Mortal Kombat: Deception
33/1 - Fight Club
50/1 - Miami Vice
50/1 - Football Manager 2005
50/1 - Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
50/1 - Ratchet and Clank 3

 

[The Abominable Snowman]

I'd rather see an open-market, aka the Hollywood Stock Exchange.

Besides being fun, it would be a good way of predicting the potential sales of gamming product. It'd be alot more accurate than the way retailers decide on how much to stock based on "buzz".

It would be a horrible way of predicting market trends. It's just a big GA thing to let us all know what games look interesting to other GA folks.

Think about it. The forums' pushing games like "Katamari Damacy" into San Andreas-like hype. Whatsisface's endless pumping of the Shantae games. FafRacer. Olimario's unhealthy obsession with Kirby's Air Ride.

 

[Gahiggidy]

Enough people involved would make for accurate predictions, i.e. "The wisdom of crowds". No one's going to bet $$ on a game like Skies of Arcadia selling 500k. And even if they did, there'd be many more people willing to sell off thier shares if t did manage to bid that high... driving down the price.

 

[snapty00]

This would be very dangerous for GAF. Nintendo fans would've went bankrupt by early 2002.

 

[Rhindle]

A market like this is only accurate if you have informed players participating.

Last year the top odds where on some "Teen Idol" game that ended up selling 20K copies. Somebody lost their shirt on that one.

 

[The Abominable Snowman]

Well, IMO, it would basically then turn into the bias of the crowds, with Nintendo-biased GAers betting on the big name Lamecube titles and Xbox biased betting on the Xbox and Sony bots betting on POS2 games. There'll be a disproportionate number of people interested and are fans of *Company A*. That will be present in both, but at least with the points system you're able to contain it to sales threads, and make sales threads more fun.

 

[Gahiggidy]

You don't get it. You don't "bet" on what a game will sell with a market. You buy shares at a price you think is reasonable. You then sell them when you think that its gotten overpriced. The only way to manipulate a market based on bias is to flood it with orders, which takes alot of money. Money has a way of overpowering bias anyways.