7 Wonders of the Modern World

[Andy4Fingers]

There's a vote on to find the 7 wonders of the modern world. I reckon there's money to be made as Bet365, Paddy Power and Sporting Odds are all taking bets on it and as I'm sure you're all aware there's probably more diversity in odds on specials than any other market (probably cos there's normally nothing more than opinion to base the odds on). Also it's a public vote to decide the outcome, so there's room for unusual choices too.
Let's get the obvious ones out of the way. The Pyramids and the Great Wall of China are obviously going to be picked, but at 1/33 and 1/28 there's hardly a lot of betting potential there.
The first one that caught my eye then was Stonehenge. It's available at 10/11 with Bet365 (only 4/7 with Sporting Odds) and I reckon that's a decent price. Built c.3000BC it's the oldest on the list and since it's English it got my patriotic vote too.
I fancied a bit of a safe one too, so the Colosseum got a chunk of my money at 4/7 with Sporting Odds (the other 2 bookies go 4/11 and 1/5). I think that the film Gladiator has ensured that this will get a large chunk of the public vote.

The main website for this competition is located at http://www.new7wonders.com/ if you want to have a look at all the competitors.

[Room316]

As you said alot of this is about opinions. I'd say the The Great Wall of China & Pyramids will definitely be in. Other older builds such as Stonehenge (which looks good value), The Acropolis of Athens, the Colosseum and Statues of Easter Island should feature.

Thinking from a betting perspective, as its a public vote, surely there will be a bias with people voting for something from there own country. Which would give the following a chance;

The Statue of Liberty 7/2 (all odds from Sporting Odds)
The Eiffel Tower 9/2
Christ Redeemer 12/5
Sydney Opera House 11/2
The Kremlin and Red Square 4/1

With the exception of Christ Redeemer (maybe) I dont think they should be in, but with country bias there might be value in backing them.
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[Betfairalfie]

Background info.

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
The Great Pyramid of Giza
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
The Colossus of Rhodes
The Pharos of Alexandria

The Seven Wonders of the Modern World
The Empire State Building
The Itaipú Dam
The CN Tower
The Panama Canal
The Channel Tunnel
The North Sea Protection Works
The Golden Gate Bridge

from http://wonderclub.com/AllWorldWonders.html

But the latest contest is a public vote - so expect the unexpected !

[Acetyl]

Hi All

(For the older generation.)

I think decimalisation should have been one of the seven wonders of the world.

I have always wondered how they pulled that one off.

regards

Acetyl

[Inatimate1]

With the amount of people in the US who are likely to vote for possibly their most famous monument, I think 7/2 on the Statue of Liberty is looking quite good for an outside punt
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7th Overall In The WC 2006 Competition

[geordiehero]

Christ Redeemer at 12/5 looks a very good bet along with the Taj Mahal at 1/3 is guarenteed money in my pocket.

[fairfranco]

Well there's 12 hours left to vote and the announcement is tomorrow.

Interestingly on Betfair Stonehendge is 3/1.

supposedly the sun newspaper has been running a campaign to get their readers to vote for it. I can see a lot of English people will be voting for stone henge.

Here are the current favourites on Betfair.

Great Wall of China - 1.03
Machu Picchu - 1.06
Taj Mahal - 1.07
Colosseum - 1.17
Easter Island Statues - 1.32
Acropolis - 1.41
Chicken Itza - 1.58
Christ Redeemer - 1.66
Petra - 2.26
Eiffel Tower - 3.5

that's all the ones with lower odds than stonehenge.

Obviously there are 7 winners on this market with the great wall being as the odds suggest, highly likely to be included.

what you need to consider as was mentioned earlier is who will vote for them. the statue of liberty will no doubt get a lot of patriotic votes if it is promoted to them. strangely the statue of liberty is at 3/1 also.

while it may not be one of the top 7 achivements out of the shortlisted choices it is the biggest national symbol of one of the largest (both number and in having the ability to get online/phone etc and vote) amount of national voters.

i'm thinking both stonehenge and the statue are worth a small bet at 3/1.

[FLASH]

I think the best choice is the statue of liberty. People all over America will be voting for this, so i think its a sure bet.

[eezzee]

Well, the results are in and are as follows:

1. Chichén Itzá, Mexico
2. Christ Redeemer, Brazil
3. The Great Wall, China
4. Machu Picchu, Peru
5. Petra, Jordan
6. The Roman Colloseum, Italy
7. The Taj Mahal, India

It's a shame there is only one European entry in the list, but then I live near Stone Henge and for some reason an oversized rockery dosen't float my boat either!
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[Dammo Qwirky]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6281540.stm