by Renee Israel
When the nominations for the 85th Academy Awards were announced, nobody was surprised to see that Steven Spielberg’s historic masterpiece Lincoln soon became a forerunner to win Best Picture.
However, after Argo’s recent string of wins at a number of top industry awards has seen the tables turn, and bookies have now posted the Ben Affleck-directed Argo as the favourite to win the most coveted of all Oscars.
Initially, bookmakers placed Lincoln at the top of their favourites list as opposed to Argo, because Affleck was snubbed in the Best Director category, a sign that h8s film would not win the biggest award of the evening. It is no secret that a film whose director was not nominated for Best Director rarely – if ever – wins in the Best Picture category.
This is why most bookmakers posted Lincoln as the Best Picture betting favourite.
Argo has Oscar Winning Potential
One simply has to consider the prizes that Argo has taken home in the past few weeks to understand why it has become a favourite at bookmakers such as Ladbrokes to win the Best Picture Oscar.
Affleck won Best Director and the film won Best Motion Picture at the Golden Globes Awards, while it also picked up a Best Ensemble Cast at the SAG Awards.
The young director was thrilled with the SAG Award, saying: “There was absolutely no way I thought we would win this award.”
All this has forced Ladbrokes to push their previous favourite, Lincoln, to second place on their list of Best Picture winners and make Argo their first contender.
It will certainly be a close race until the end for Argo and Lincoln, which will also have to beat superb movies such as Les Miserable and Zero Dark Thirty to carry home an Oscar.
Affleck said: “I don’t know what’s going to happen, nothing may happen, but it’s a wonderful opportunity to be on the ride.”
Best Picture Odds at Ladbrokes
At present, Argo leads the way for Best Picture at Ladbrokes with odds of 8/13, but with the Oscars still a good three weeks off (February 25th), anything may happen.
Bet on Argo as the Best Picture favourite, as well as multiple other markets, at Ladbrokes sports betting site.
Best Picture odds at Ladbrokes:
Argo – 8/13
Lincoln – 7/4
Les Miserables – 25/1
Silver Linings Playbook – 33/1
Life of Pi – 50/1
Zero Dark Thirty – 66/1
Amour – 100/1
Beasts of the Southern Wild – 125/1
Django Unchained – 150/1
From www.gamblingkingz.com