As the world awaits to see who will be the new pope, gaming enthusiasts around the world are already betting on who will replace Pope Francis and be proclaimed “His Holiness”.
According to Oddschecker.com, there are two main favourites that have the highest chances of becoming the next potential pope:
- Pietro Paroling is the current favourite to assume the role, sitting at the top with +320 (9/4) odds as of Wednesday afternoon.
- Paroling is closely followed by the Filipino prelate of the Catholic Church, Luis Antonio Tagle, who has odds of +400 (3/1) to become the next pope.
- Ghanaian prelate Peter Turkson, along with the Italian archbishop of Bologna, Matteo Zuppi, round up the top four with +600 (6/1) odds of becoming the leader of the Catholic Church.
Together with the option to wager on the next pope, players can also bet on both the name of the new pontiff as well as the nation he will represent. Despite Italy being considered the most likely country from which the next pope will come, oddsmakers are adamant that the favourite is “a country that has never had a pope”, boasting a 60% likelihood.
Bill Ordine, author of “Fantasy Sports, Real Money: The Unlikely Rise of Daily Fantasy” and a now-retired former national writer for Gambling.com, said:
I’m old enough to remember that if the guy wasn’t Italian, he wasn’t going to be the pope.
Polymarket, a platform that allows betting on pretty much anything you can imagine, has previously launched a poll where players can bet on whether there will be a new pope.
In light of this, the platform has now launched a similar poll where you can bet on who will be the new pope. The market for this poll has already amassed a whopping $15,701,377 trading volume, with the biggest favourites according to the platform being:
- Pietro Parolin: $982,867 Vol. – 29%
- Luis Antonio Tagle: $1,090,343 Vol – 19%
- Matteo Zuppi: $765,270 Vol.- 19%
- Pierbattista Pizzaballa: $695,815 Vol.- 9%
- Peter Turkson: $939,744 Vol. – 8%
- Péter Erdő: $709,059 Vol. – 8%
- Robert Sarah: $872,291 Vol. – 3%
- Jean-Marc Aveline: $522,555 Vol. – 3%
