Big bet on Lisa Riley winning Strictly Come Dancing

It’s one-way traffic in the Strictly Come Dancing betting since the last live show, with punters piling into Lisa Riley for victory.

The strength of support for the actress has caused one punter to stake £1,500 on a victory at the current price of 8/1, which will mean a £13,500 pay-out should she be successful.

This situation does go some way to showing that there is value in ante-post betting, as Lisa could have been backed at 66/1 ahead of the opening live performance, when she was the rank outsider of the 14 celebrities taking part.

However, backing her to finish in the top three, which is likely to be just better than 1/1, would be the far wiser bet.

The problem for Lisa is that she has potentially peaked too soon, having stolen the show in the opening week.

She possesses bags of energy, enthusiasm and exuberance on the dance floor and this will appeal to both the judges and voters at home.

But, she is slightly lacking technically in comparison to some of her chief competition for victory, which will almost certainly be of significance in the latter weeks, especially if facing one in a dance-off.

The race for the final looks particularly tight this year, with Louis Smith looking the only guaranteed celebrity to make final three as he is easily the leading male in the competition.

Of the women, a towel could almost be thrown over Lisa, Kimberley Walsh and Denise Van Outen to occupy the other two places, while Dani Harmer could be the improving dark horse over the coming weeks who makes a late charge.

Given Louis’ talents, it is no surprise that he is already as short as 1/5 to be the top male on Strictly Come Dancing.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.