UK Apprentice Winner Stella English in Betting “Scandal”
Prop bets are a fantastic way to attract the attention of punters. It shows betting companies are willing to offer odds on everything under the sun. Everything from when a celebrity baby will be born to the number one song at Christmas and in recent years, winners of reality shows are all popular options.
It’s that last prop bet than brings us to this somewhat surprising news. Stella English, the winner of the Apprentice UK is accused of having leaked information about her win three days before her win was announced in the shows finale.
The UK Apprentice, hosted by Lord Sugar is the British version of the hit US series The Apprentice hosted by Donald Trump, here players compete for a job with the wealthy host.
This is surprising as it’s the first incident that I can recall of the actual winner of a reality show allegedly releasing information for punters to take advantage of the bookies.
It’s common that reality show producers will put clauses in contestant’s contracts to discourage leaks, in some cases 
indicating the producers can sue for up to $5 Million dollars. That’s a lot cake for Stella English as the UK Apprentice win only pays a £100,000 salary
We’ll need to see how this plays out but this isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last time, reality show insiders try to profit off the honest sportsbooks. Actually, it happens every time, typically it’s a low-level employee or a cameraman or film editor who leaks the information to his friends or family.
After working in the industry, specifically prop betting, for so long, I haven’t been surprised by the winner of a reality show where bookies took odds for the last seven or eight years. The answers are out there or at least in your wagers list.
One of the most famous of these cases came back in 2003 when a CBS employee was caught trying to profit on the results of “Survivor”. This was the most blatant case as the person signed up for a Bodog.com sportsbook account using a CBS company email address. When the odds makers realized something was foul, the company issued a press release announcing the suspicious betting patterns.
Offering props on reality shows, which are pre-taped events or as they say in the biz, “in the can”, is a double-edge sword for the sportsbooks. They want to offer punters the widest variety of betting options but they need to protect the bottom line from this sort of chicanery.
That being said, taking a few suspicious bets has its benefits for the first company to recognize the peculiar betting patterns. It’s allows them to be the first to hit the media with a press release announcing the removal of odds on the reality show. It’s excellent publicity but for those companies that aren’t first to the media, they’re stuck paying out winning wagers on a pre-taped event and any attempt at a media release is seen as a desperate ploy for attention.
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