The weirdest things that you can bet on around the world
The end of the world, the royal family and celebrity deaths.
It seems that if you can think of it then you can bet on it, which is great if you’re a fair dinkum punter like your fellow Fair Go’ers. So if our virtual casino titles and online pokies aren’t giving you the thrill they once did, perhaps you can mix it up? Check out the following weird things that you can bet on around the world.
UFOs
Are we alone in space?
It’s the question that’s duped, confused and flummoxed people for centuries. Instead of worry about the specifics of this question though, some wily bookmakers have turned it into an exercise in profit making.
Right now there are bookies out there who will let you bet on whether or not we will discover alien life. This bet is based more on the question of when (not if) and you can choose to wager on it happening this year, in the next 5 years or sometime in the not so distant future.
You may have to dig around a bit to find these bookies, but you definitely won’t need to leave the planet. You might also be able to do some research for your bet. Lord knows there are plenty of grainy videos, sketchy interviews and black and white images for you to refer to.
But seriously… can you imagine if we were contacted by aliens? Surely the odds of that must be pretty good, given that we’re running out of significant world events (natural disasters, Steve Irwin’s passing, a global pandemic etc.) to experience.
Celebrity deaths
Speaking of celebrity deaths, this is but another totally bizarre thing that you can bet on.
We don’t condone it of course. We like to keep things a little bit more on the sunny side of life here at Fair Go. But if you did want to dip your toes into this weird wagering pool, be our guest.
The market for celebrity deaths is pretty self-explanatory. You simply wager on which celebrity you believe will be next to shuffle off their mortal coil. Our bets would definitely go on someone from the Jackass crew. Then again, online casino games and pokies seem so much more wholesome.
Wife carrying
If you thought that wife carrying was the term for a bloke who couldn’t let go off an ex-missus, then your way off the mark. Wife carrying is actually a sport that’s big in nations from Europe.
How it works is that you must carry your one and only through a challenging obstacle course set over 250 metres. With the team that finishes the fastest winning the game. You should also be married to the woman that you’re carrying, however, this rule isn’t strictly enforced.
Word on the street is that the Irish love to bet on this sport. In fact, one of their biggest bookmaking companies is a major sponsor of the All-Ireland Wife Carrying Championship. It’s also big in Australia, Estonia and Finland too – the latter of which is home to the world championships.
Cheese rolling
What the heck is cheese rolling? Well… it’s exactly what you think it is.
Held every year during spring in the southwest of England in a little region called Gloucester, cheese rolling is a unique sport whereby competitors chase big chunks of cheese down a hill. The quickest one down the hill is crowned the winner, but given the steepness of said hill, there are usually some very spectacular stacks.
More of a novelty activity than a professional sport, cheese rolling has nonetheless become extremely popular within the UK. Cheese-rolling officials even petitioned the Olympic committee to ask if they could include in the next Olympic games (no cheese for those of you who can guess what their answer was).
Understandably, betting on cheese rolling has also become a thing. And there are a variety of different markets that you can choose from, including the first one over the line, the biggest fall and the last placed runner.
Pesapallo
Pesapallo might sound like a pesto pasta dish from the southern climes of Italy, but it’s actually the national sport of Finland.
For those of you not familiar with this odd activity, the best way to describe it is to say that it resembles baseball. The offense tries to score by hitting the ball and running through the bases, while the defence tries to take the batter and the runners out. Pesapallo is a game of speed, variety and tactics… and it’s also another strange activity that you can punt on.
Markets are not all that common south of the equator, but you can probably find some online bookies who run odds on this interesting discipline. Funnily enough, pesapallo is starting to enjoy increased numbers in Australia, Germany and Switzerland, so you might be betting on it in the near future.
Or you could be playing it.
The next pope
News from Europe doesn’t reach Australia all that quickly, but as far as we know, our current pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio is still kicking.
However, this shouldn’t stop you from having a punt on who you think the next pope will be (why did we not call this section ‘pope punting’?). Simply pick who you think is most likely to take over the hallowed role from the available options. There are likely candidates from all over the world, so you’ll have some fun trying to decipher who is next in line.
Be warned though because there’s something decidedly sacrilegious about betting on the passing of a pope. After all, it’s not like religion and gambling have always been good bedfellows. Despite this, you can still tempt the lord almighty by having a crack at this market today. Although we might continue to abstain from this market… less we incur the wrath of the betting gods.
Animal bingo
Stinky? Yes. Weird? Definitely. Fun? We like to think so.
Say hello to the wonderful world of animal bingo. Usually played with cows and ferrets, animal bingo may just be the most incorruptible type of strange bet that you can place.
The reason for this is that you can’t bribe a cow, nor can you influence a ferret with money. If this sounds like something you can get behind then, winning on animal bingo could just be written in your future. But how does it work?
Well, ferret bingo works like this.
People bring their pet ferret to a venue with an obstacle course made up of tunnels. Each of these tunnels has a different exit, so the route that the ferret takes will determine which exit they end up coming out of. How you win money is by betting on which exit you think the ferret will take. However, you can also wager on other ferret bingo markets that award the fastest ferret.
Then there’s cow patty bingo. How it works is that you must bet on where you believe the cow will do her business in a field. Come to think of it, this is more like cow roulette than cow bingo. Nevertheless, it still sounds like it could be kind of very fun (but very stanky).
Especially if you step in the winning dump.
Kim Jong-Un
If betting on where a cow will dump is on one end of the novelty betting spectrum, wagering on the outcome of Kim Jong-Un’s life is at the opposite end.
When will he cease to be in power? Will his sister take control of the country? Does he even have a sister? To be honest, nobody outside of Kim Jong-Un’s inner circle have even the slightest clue what his plans for the future are. The North Korean government is so tight lipped. They make it impossible to discern what in our glorious leader’s name is going to happen.
To make it even harder for budding Kim Jong-Un punters, their government also releases a lot of fake news. This is generally centred around the ruler’s health, so we imagine that wagering on his life is nothing short of a nightmare.
Like… do we even know if he’s still in power?
The royal family
If you can bet on celebrities and the pope, then it makes sense that the British royal family is also fair game.
In fact, this may just be one of the most popular bizarre betting markets that you can play. Why? Because every man and woman and their dog has an opinion about the royal family, so we might as well punt on it.
As such, everything is on the table when it comes to royal family bets. You can wager on whether you think Harry and Megan will lose their titles, how long you believe the Queen’s reign will last and whether Megan and Kate will ever be mates again.
Yep, betting on the world’s most famous family is fun, but we can’t help but assume that more than a few of these bets will be motivated by schadenfreude… otherwise known as pleasure derived from another person's misfortune.
Armageddon
If you recently joined a cult that’s hell bent on ushering in Armageddon, then guess what? You can now bring about the end of the world AND win some cash… all thanks to a bookmaker that lets you bet on when the world will cease to exist.
Simply pick the year that you reckon we’ll all kick the bucket or select a date range if you want to increase your winning odds. All you have to do after that is wait around until the skies turn red and things begin to go a little bit sideways.
If you win, good for you. But if you lose, well it probably doesn’t matter all that much. There’s no use for winnings if there’s no world to use them in.
Try betting at Australia’s favourite online casino today.
