Paddy Power offers bets on volcanic eruptions

By Daniel Johnson

Some bookmakers like to offer bets on slightly unusual events, Paddy Power is no exception. Instead of joining the general panic created by the volcanic eruption in Iceland, it has started offering bets on when it will stop.

In case you’ve missed the news, on the 14th of last month the volcano Eyjafjallaj’kull in Iceland erupted for the second time, spewing tons of lava into the air and creating an ash cloud that led to widespread disruption of air travel across Europe, which in turn resulted in millions of travellers stranded and disruption to major economies.

As the eruption continued with no end in sight, Paddy Power was offering bets on when it will all end, they would declare the eruption stopped when the Icelandic government confirmed it to be so.

They were proved right in there expectation that the eruption would end before the beginning of May and they were offering it at odds of 1/2. There odds were longer for more distant dates in the future, they were offering odds of 4/1 for May 2010, 8/1 for June 2010 and 10/1 for July 2010. However, they were offering odds of 8/1 for 2011 and the unlikely scenario of the mess continuing until 2013 was worth odds of 25/1.

Paddy Power are also taking bets on what the next volcano to erupt will be, they are offering a choice of 22 volcanoes including Eyjafjallaj’kall which currently has odds of 5/1 to erupt before the others. Ahead of Eyjafjallaj’kall there is Mt Unzen in Japan at 3/1 and Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mt Unzen last erupted in 1991 and Nyiragongo seems likely as together with its neighbouring volcano it is responsible for 40% of eruptions in Africa over the entirety of history.