Andy Murray is the shortest-priced favourite in history to be named BBC Sports Personality of the Year on Sunday and punters are taking more interest in who will fare best of the rest, with Mo Farah and Tony McCoy set to battle it out for second place.
Murray is a top-priced 1/14 with Ladbrokes to become the fourth tennis player to pick up this gong as reward for ending Britain's long wait for a home winner of the men's singles title at Wimbledon.
Such is his dominance, William Hill go 1/2 he attracts more than 50 per cent of the votes cast and 6/4 he falls short of that figure, with Sir Bradley Wiggins prevailing with 30.3 per cent 12 months ago and Mark Cavendish reaching 49.5 per cent in 2011.
"The fact that Murray is not going to be there on the night will make no difference as we finally have a British Wimbledon winner to celebrate," Hills spokesman Rupert Adams said.
"It is not a question of 'will Andy win the Sports Personality?' but 'how far will he win it by?'"
Murray kicked off what is sure to be a busy awards season by winning the SJA sportsman of the year award yesterday.
The Scot beat Novak Djokovic to end Britain's 77-year wait for a male singles champion at Wimbledon this summer.
Murray won the sportsman of the year gong at the Sports Journalists' Association (SJA) awards dinner in central London on Thursday afternoon.
Murray was not at the ceremony, but he gave his thanks in a pre-recorded address, saying: "It has been an unbelievable year.
"Winning Wimbledon was the highlight. I've been working towards that for a long time.
"I'd like to thank all the journalists who have written about me over the years."
National Hunt jockey McCoy has attracted some support to repeat his 2010 SPOTY triumph, after recently reaching 4,000 career victories, with Adams adding: "There seems to be a few quid around for AP and there is perhaps an online campaign attempting to beat Murray to the title."
However, he can be backed at 22/1 with Stan James to join Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and Henry Cooper as a two-time winner, while Farah is 50/1 at Spreadex after claiming gold medals in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres races at the World Championships.
Farah is slightly more fancied than McCoy to fare best without Murray, though, with Boylesports offering a stand-out 6/4 for the athlete in this market, while the jump racing hero is 2/1 with several firms and Tour de France kingpin Chris Froome 9/2.
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