A FRENZY of betting has started in the UK after British footballer David Beckham and his wife Victoria, a former pop singer, announced they are expecting their fourth child this summer.
The bookmakers have started taking bets on the gender and the name of the unborn baby, but have already announced that their odds favour the chances of the new baby being a girl. The Beckhams already are parents to three boys, 11-year-old Brooklyn, eight-year-old Romeo and five-year-old Cruz.
Ladbrokes on Monday offered 10/11 odds for a girl and 5/6 for a fourth boy, but William Hill played it safe by offering 5/6 odds for both a boy and girl. The bookmaker also offered 50/1 odds for “multiple births.”
The names Juliet and Sandra are the favoured choices as the name of the new Beckham baby. Ladbrokes on Monday made Juliet the 4/1 favourite to be the child’s name and William Hill is offering 9/1 odds that the baby will be named Sandra after the England footballer’s mother. The second favourites are 10/1 odds for David and Red.
William Hill, however, is also offering 25/1 odds that the new baby could be named after the Beckhams’ new friend, Prince William.
“The Beckham’s are celebrity royalty and could cement that by naming the fourth member of their brood after new best buddy Prince William,” William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly said on Monday.
The outside choice for the baby’s name is Zurich and Hill is offering 200/1 odds on the name. Barry Beckham (150/1), Becky Beckham (50/1), Milan at 66/1 and Galaxy at 500/1 are outsiders for Ladbrokes.
“Correctly predicting the name of new Beckham arrivals has been almost impossible to date,” Alex Donohue of Ladbrokes said.
William Hill has already started on the backfoot after it had to shell out £5,000 to a customer whpo had successfully bet on a Beckham baby this year. “Punters have already made a few pounds off us from the Becks babe but we just have to hope they don’t call their child David junior or David II as we will lose a small fortune,” the William Hill spokesperson added.