AFP DUBLIN
Ireland’s biggest bookmaking chain, Paddy Power, said yesterday that Nigeria’s Cardinal Francis Arinze was now listed as the punters’ outright favourite to succeed John Paul II as pope.
“We have received about 100,000 euros (129,000 dollars) in bets from all over the world. It is an incredible amount of money for something like this,” said spokesman Paddy Power junior of online bookmakers www.paddypower.com.
If Arinze, 72, with odds of 11 to 4 is chosen by his fellow cardinals as the pope’s successor he will be the first pope from the Third World. Paddy Power had earlier put Arinze at joint favourite with the archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, 71, who has slipped back to odds of 7 to 2.
The 117 cardinals will go into a secret meeting called a conclave in the Sistine Chapel in Rome on April 18 to begin the process of choosing a successor to Pope John Paul II, who was buried at the Vatican on Friday.
Wagering on who will be pope is a risky business.
Neither Albino Luciani nor Karol Wojtyla, who became John Paul I and John Paul II, were mentioned in pre-conclave speculation before they were chosen. Power, son of the founder of the bookmaker, said there was an old saying that counsels: “He who goes into the conclave a pope comes out a cardinal.”
Despite the caution, Power said they have been taking bets on the next pope for five years but the betting has only really taken off in recent weeks.
“We have had almost 5,000 people placing bets so far with the average bet only about 20 or 30 euros. We had one big bet of 1,000 euros on Tettamanzi when he was favourite a few months ago at 5 to 1,” Power said.
