Dancing on Ice

[Beanie]

Kicks off this Saturday, the 20th of January.

Not as snappy as Soapstar Superstar, but still plenty of money to be made I think.

Duncan James 4.00
Stephen Gately 5.00
Lee Sharpe 5.50
Clare Buckfield 7.50
Ulrika Jonsson 8.50
Lisa Scott Lee 8.00
Emily Symons 12.00
Neil Fox 15.00
Kieran Bracken 13.00
Kay Burley 17.00
Phil Gayle 21.00

From Bet365

[Beanie]

Let's mention something first:

DO NOT BET ON SOMEONE PURELY BASED ON THEIR SKATING SKILLS!!!!!

Thats the golden rule...Barrowman and Langford were easily the best skaters last time round, and were soundly beaten by ITV soap favourite Gaynor Faye.

Look for a well known, white, British, ITV face, who can stand up on 2 skates, and you should be ok.

It should also be mentioned that this show is easier for women as they get lifted rather than having to do lifts, and so their routines always look better.

Will look at competitors later on, but get involved folks

[Hippy Dave]

Bloody hell, are Steps preparing for a comeback? They're all over reality TV right now. Please say no

[Hippy Dave]

Duncan James looked to be justifying his favouritism - good performance, and as a boy band member he won't havee trouble getting votes.

Lisa Scott Lee was ok, Neil Fox seems to bee the novelty act and will probably go quite far without winning.

[Hippy Dave]

Wasn't expecting much from Kieran Bracken, but he was very good, and a potential winner I think

[Beanie]

Shhit...unexpected project at work meant a 12 hour day today and perhaps similar tomorrow, so completely missed out on preparing for or watching this

Any chance of a very brief update on how they all skated Dave?

[Kop66]

I see a bit of it Beanie, i agree with Dave about Kieran Bracken and Duncan James, both were good.
Lee sharpe did quite well too but if i would be getting involved in this i'd make sure i was on Clare Buckfield 1st up, she impressed most tonight.

[Hippy Dave]

Lost interest after the first few, so didn't really pay much attention to the 2nd half.

[Beanie]

Watching this while playing poker tonight - without seeing anyone skate I fancy Phil Gayle to go - he's a bit of a lump and effectively up against Kay for elimination tonight, and as a woman who will be thrown around and made to look good he's at a bit of a disadvantage straight off. A small bet at 3s anyway.

Will get some outright bets sorted after the show.

[Beanie]

Originally Posted by Beanie

Watching this while playing poker tonight - without seeing anyone skate I fancy Phil Gayle to go - he's a bit of a lump and effectively up against Kay for elimination tonight, and as a woman who will be thrown around and made to look good he's at a bit of a disadvantage straight off. A small bet at 3s anyway.

Lovely jubbly - we're off and running.

Will wait for the outright market to get a bit more liquidity and the bookies to release their new prices before looking at the outrights.

[Beanie]

Looks pretty obvious to me that the value lies on Keiran Bracken at the mo, but I'll go for a quick run through first.

Kay Burley and Steven Gately have no chance - they're both poor skaters and have no real fanbase to speak of - Gately will be kept alive for a few weeks by a bit of a Boyzone vote, but no more than that.

Lisa Scott Lee looks unlikely to me too - she's not really liked or known well enough, and skating wise Clare Buckfield is streets ahead.

Same goes for Ulrika.

Emily Symonds has the ITV vote behind her what with being on Emmerdale, but unlike Gaynor Faye I don't this she is as well known or liked, and the skating is questionable.

Contenders for me then are Lee Sharpe, Bracken, Duncan James and Buckfield.

Sportsmen have a proven record in these shows because they are good in training and often show big improvement week to week, and both Sharpe and more so Bracken have shown decent ability so far. They're both fairly likeable chaps - Bracken is being made out as the cheeky chappy and that will help him votes wise no end.

Duncan and Clare are the early frontrunners as they seem to tick all the boxes, but I don't buy it. They look like shoeins for a top 4 slot but when it comes to finals night I don't think either will be able to harness the mass appeal needed.

Clare is the best skater so far, but a) thats only half the battle(she's unknown apart from that) and b) it is not good news for her to be seemingly peaking so early - big scores early on means she has nowhere to go(storywise, which these shows love) but down...Barrowman might have done similar last year...not sure.

Anyway, I do think she'll drop a bit further, so will wait another week or two to lay her, but in the meantime I'll open with Bracken @ 6s and Sharpe @ 30s.

[Beanie]

Bracken into favourite

[stereoman]

Looking even better for you as Bracken goes into odds-on.

[Beanie]

As much as I like the bet I'll lay it off if it drops too much more - I never watched too closely last series but I don't think Gaynor Faye was ever favourite, and given how much these shows love their 'Ugly Duckling' stories, odds on favourites are there to be shot at.

[stereoman]

She was the odds-on favourite to win when it was just her, Stefan and Bonnie as money came piling in on Gaynor to win in the final week. I think she overtook Bonnie for favouritism around the time Kelly Holmes left though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_on_Ice#Series_1