Is the Public Love Affair with Love Island Cooling?
Love Island 2021 is entering its third week. The show has witnessed some tears and confrontations. But limited storylines and the lack of a juicy love triangle, means it has not broken any records. Doubtlessly a clash with the Euro 2020 competition has cost the show viewers. Understandably ITV2 executives will be hoping the numbers bounce back following the Euro’s conclusion.
Originals Jake and Liberty Head the Betting
Love Island 2021, which is scheduled to last a full two months, has already seen three people dumped from the show. Five more have entered the Love Island villa. They were Liam Reardon, Rachael Finni, Lucinda Strafford, Millie Court and, most recently, day-12 arrival Teddy Soares.
This quintet has made little impression with punters. In fact, Rachel has left already. Lucinda Strafford, 21 from Brighton, is the shortest-priced of newcomers. 11/2 to be ‘top female’ with some top bookies, the tabloids have been quick to pick up on her previous relationship – a two-year stint with Brighton & Hove Albion star Aaron Connolly.
Online bookmakers, who are still reporting healthy turnover on the show, believe Jake Cornish and Liberty Poole are the most likely winners of the respective male and female categories. Indeed, they believe the pair will win outright as a couple. The William Hill sportsbook makes them industry top-priced 9/4 to succeed.
The ’winning couple’ market has seen plenty of movement to date. Cornish and Poole, who coupled on day one, were originally 6/1 shots. Going the other way in the betting are Toby Aromolaran and Kaz Kamwi. As short as 11/4 at one point, they can now be backed at 14/1.
“Maybe the attention on the football has had something to do with the drop in viewing figures so far. But we are seeing the usual level of interest from those trying to pick out the winning couple. Jake and Liberty were gambled into 15/8 from 2/1 with us for that honor this week. There is strong momentum with them.”– Lawrence Lyons, Spokesperson, Boylesports
10/1 The Winner Fails to Split the Spoils
There has also been a seismic price shift in either member of the winning couple stealing the prize money at the show’s conclusion. As with previous years, the prize money for the winning Love Island couple is ￡50,000. Once the winners have been announced one member of the winning pair is given the option to split or steal all the money.
“For some reason, this year there is a lot more speculation that one of the winning pair will decide to make off with the full whack of cash,” says Lyons. “If that comes to pass, we’ll have plenty of our own customers cashing in after backing that scenario down to 10/1 from 33/1 at the start of the series.”
To date, no winner has ever opted to take their partner’s share of the spoils but 2021 has been an unpredictable and extraordinary year.
