Not much to say in many ways. The hot and cold colour coding below speaks for itself!

Rory has been outstanding this summer since his break up from Caroline Wozniacki (he himself says it has helped him focus on his golf and she is also doing well since, having just dumped Maria Sharapova out of the US Open).

No-one deserves to win SPOTY more this year after his two major wins (with the Ryder Cup still to come) – although I am sure he doesn’t care about winning a popularity contest.

On the eve of the USPGA he was actually the same best price to win that tournament (22/1) as he was to win SPOTY. There were some good opportunities to trade on both markets during the tournament but I was bit slow on the uptake eventually getting on a bit late in the day.

I’m sure the winner has been decided but there will still be good opportunities to look for value in the place markets and the without-McIlroy markets which I will update on in the coming months.

Ralph Ellis makes some good points in this Betfair article but in that year Ryan Giggs was up against Jenson Button and I am not convinced that this generation of F1 drivers capture the imagination as they did say twenty years ago. Also a campaign for Jonny Wilkinson may not be as strong as that for Giggs for a couple of reasons, mainly that he has already won the award before in 2003.

Rory McIlroy 1/6

Lewis Hamilton 7/1

Andy Murray 100/1

Jonny Wilkinson 22/1

Jo Pavey 33/1

Gareth Bale 100/1

Carl Froch 50/1

Claudia Fragapane 33/1