23-01-2005 William Hill decided to close the Big Brother betting

Betting patterns for the last two evictions and in the outright betting, suggested that even at very prohibitive odds (1/14 on) certain punters were still trying to stake as much money as they could. On Friday evening, Hill received a number of enquiries from unknown punters wishing to place bets on two evictions occurring, something that had never happened before.

"The vast majority of legitimate punters will already have placed their bets, so hopefully our regular customers will not be inconvenienced by these drastic measures. All bets placed to this point will be honoured," Rupert Adams, William Hill spokesman, said.