2012 BRIT Awards: Best Male Solo Artist Odds and Betting Preview - Ed Sheeran strongly fancied to cap great year

LONDON, UK - Ed Sheeran is up for four BRIT Awards tonight at the O2 Arena in London, but according to the bookmakers he will only win two of them - Best Male Solo Artist and Best Breakthrough Act. It is a huge night for a singer that only turned 21-years-old last week, but punters and bookies alike expect Ed Sheeran to be rewarded for a sensational start to his career as a singer-songwriter. 

In recent years the bookmakers have usually been able to predict the winner of the Best Male Solo Artist category, which bodes well for fans of the Halifax singer tonight. Fans on Sheeran’s Facebook page have said ‘If Ed Sheeran doesn't win a Brit then something is wrong with this world’, but they have little to fear if they take a look at recent winners of the award and their odds before the ceremony. Last year Plan B was a red-hot 1/2 favourite with Sky Bet before winning Best Male, and similarly in 2010 Dizzee Rascal was the 2/1 second-favourite behind Robbie Williams with Coral before collecting his award at Earls Court.

This year Ed Sheeran can be backed at best odds of 2/5 (bet £5 to make 32 profit) with Ladbrokes to win Best Male, having opened up at odd of 4/1 with Irish bookmaker Paddy Power at the end of December. It looks as if plenty of shrewd punters took the 4/1 with Paddy Power, as they were forced to cut Sheeran’s odds into 5/2 the following day before going even-money shortly after. Odds of 2/5 give Sheeran a 71% chance of winning, and it is hard to argue with the odds after the success of his album +, which featured hits such as ‘The A Team’ and ‘Lego House’.

Noel Gallagher is back in the limelight with his new rock band Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and the Manchester singer can be backed at 11/4 with Bet Victor to win Best Male. Gallagher shot to fame with his brother Liam in Oasis, but the duo split in August 2009 after almost 20 years together. Although Noel has not exactly shot back to the lofty heights of the Oasis years, his singles ‘The Death of You and Me’, ‘If I Had a Gun...’ and ‘AKA... What a Life!’ charted at 15, 95 and 20 respectively in the UK. The next collaboration with Amorphous Androgynous will hit the shelves later this year.

Punters should note that Oasis won six BRIT Awards from 12 nominations, so Gallagher has to be respected in the betting, and it is interesting that Paddy Power cut him from 7/2 to 3/1 last week.

Third in the betting at 8/1 with Bet Victor and Betfred is Professor Green, who has had a massive year thanks to his album At Your Inconvenience. Whilst the song of the same name did not fare too well in the charts, he teamed up with Emeli Sandé for ‘Read All About It’, which spent two weeks on the top spot in the UK and sold over 200,000 copies. He has been weak in the betting having opened up at 4/1 with the bookies, but his next task will be to conquer Australia and the United States on tour.

James Morrison is at 25/1 with Ladbrokes and totesport having won Best Male back in 2007 and received a nomination two years later. His third album The Awakening made it to top spot in the UK when it was released last September, but his collaboration with Jessie J ‘Up’ flopped in the singles charts. Even though Morrison has won before, he looks one to avoid in the market with all the momentum behind the favourite.

The outsider of the five nominees is James Blake, who is best-priced at 28/1 with Bet Victor, Stan James and Sky Bet. He was nominated for Ciritcs’ Choice at the Brits last year and also got a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize, but the bookies do not expect him to win a first BRIT Award tonight in the Best Male category.

The 2012 BRIT Awards are on Tuesday 21st February at the O2 Arena in London. The ceremony is broadcast live on ITV1 from 20.00 GMT.

Best Male Solo Artist Odds