But they fear David Miliband, the foreign secretary and the bookies' favourite to replace Mr Brown.
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The bookies' favourite had been A Life Decoded, the autobiography of genetics pioneer Craig Venter.
Some Irish bookies have Magee down as favourite for the bout which has surprised Oakey.
To Mr. Lyle, whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all bookies, this fact was very attractive.
He beat off competition from the bookies' favourite and the poet laureate to win his first major award.
This week Mr Davis made his first big speech since becoming the bookies' favourite to lead the party.
And the government has handed out permits only to the racecourse, and to a few chains of off-course bookies.
In sports, following conventional wisdom pays off more often than not (at least according to the bookies in Vegas).
According to the London bookies, the favorite to win the Nobel Prize in Literature this year was Bob Dylan.
No wonder the bookies have him at only even-money to survive as Tory leader until the next general election.
Others have been forced to follow, with calamitous consequences for the bookies' margins.
Bookies have Lincoln as the favourite to win best film, with Les Miserables tipped to take the British film prize.
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But part of the joy of the event is getting one over on the old, old enemy - the bookies.
While most other rich countries chose to make betting on horse-racing a state monopoly, Britain legalised private bookies in the 1960s.
Although competition from fixed-odds bookies limits the Tote's market power, the Tote still has a monopoly over some types of bet.
Though greater competition puts pressure on bookies' profit margins, the increase in turnover wrought by the tax cut is more than compensating.
But even the state-owned Tote, a pooled-bet scheme, is backing the bookies.
Beryl Bainbridge, the bookies' favourite on the long-list, was the shock omission.
Several cricketers visiting the subcontinent have complained about being pestered by bookies.
However, punters with those bookies will only get their winnings to half the stake placed, as the result is considered a dead heat.
His magnificent seven cleaned out the bookies, and even halted BBC Grandstand's Final score as the cameras showed live coverage of his success.
Stripped of obligations to the racing industry, the Tote would probably be worth most to other bookies, because buying the Tote would remove a competitor.
Town halls in England and Wales have called for more powers to tackle High Street takeaways, strip-clubs and bookies, which they say could damage local economies.
"Worcester have come down with a big playing budget and a great infrastructure so they're probably the bookies' favourites to go straight back up, " added Hull.
"If that's the case then I might just have to get down to the bookies and put a few quid on myself, " said the Portsmouth boxer.
Back in Wales and Sarah Burnell, who runs her own dance school in the Pencoed area, near Bridgend wasn't massively impressed with the bookies' favourite either.
It was all in fun, of course, but they labored over historical records, filled up countless spreadsheets, consulted bookies, and then plugged the relevant data into their models.
If the bookies refuse, their off-course screens may go black.
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