Against the Odds Mario Bergoglio Elected as Pope
Gamblers who correctly predicted who the new pope is will now be collecting their bets at bookmakers around the world.
With odds of 40/1 the choice of Argentinian Mario Bergoglio as pope has caught many by surprise.
The who bet on Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio will certainly be very pleased, he was considered an outsider and the odds on him were 40/1.
This means that for every £1 bet punters will be enjoying returns of £40! According to Paddy Power over £500,000 was bet on predicting the next pope so and they are sure to be paying out vast sums to some lucky people. There were even
William Hill was offering odds of 6/4 that the cardinals would elect a pope on Wednesday. Anyone who bet on this will receive £2.50 for every £1 they bet.
According to William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly they took over 6,000 bets on the new pope and only a “small percentage of those placed on the Argentine cardinal.”
Bergoglio has chosen the name Francis I, he is the first South American to become pope and also the first Jesuit. It is believed he was the runner up in when Benedict XVI was electing in 2005, however, this has never been confirmed.
