Bookmakers make fortune on Boyle`s failure in Britain`s TV show
Scottish singer Susan Boyle`s unexpected defeat in the finals of "Britain`s Got Talent" reality show Saturday has helped U.K. bookmakers make a fortune, British TV channel Sky News reported Sunday.
Boyle, a 48-year-old unemployed church volunteer, was considered as a favorite in this year`s reality show but was unexpectedly beaten by street dance group Diversity from southeast England.
The street dancers, who come from Essex and include three sets of brothers, were the bookmakers` only sixth favourite on the list of 10 finalists while Boyle had attracted the lion`s share of the bets to win, Sky News said.
"We are in shock and have made a six figure sum in what has been the biggest surprise in reality TV history. Susan was a certainty," Sky News quoted William Hill`s spokesman Rupert Adams as saying.
According to William Hill`s estimate, a sum of over 3 million British pounds ($4.86 million) was bet on the show in the final hour.
The street dancers have won 100,000 British pounds ($162,000) and will now perform at the Royal Variety Performance in front of the Queen
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