The Great British Bake Off Is a Great British Betting Zone

For the past five years, I’ve had a weekend ritual. I wake up, preheat my oven and start measuring butter, flour and sugar. (Most recently, to create a giant raspberry jam bun.) Then I turn on The Great British Bake Off. There’s absolutely no talking during the judging, unless the resident Brit, me, has to explain a sponge or a spotted dick. At the end of the show, there’s spirited debate between myself and friends over the best creation and requisite praise for the perfect crumb.

There’s a universe of people even more invested in the show than me, though. A vast and potentially lucrative online betting market exists around the series. Betting websites offer weekly odds on everything from who will get judge Paul Hollywood’s coveted handshake, who will win each episode’s technical challenge and, of course, who will eventually take home the glass cake-stand trophy and flower bouquet at the finale.