One of the big betting events in the run-up to Christmas is on the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year. Whenever this has taken place in the December after the summer Olympics then it is almost a certainty that who gets crowned will have played a big part in the games.

This is how Betfair punters are currently seeing it and after Jason Kenny’s record-breaking seventh Gold yesterday morning he looks on course to make the running in the betting at least. Behind him on 3.75 is the articulate and telegenic diving gold winner Tom Daley.

My guess is that Kenny’s cumulative seven golds will at the end of the day be the deciding factor.

I bet on Kenny at 5.1 as soon as he had won his event in the early hours of yesterday morning. That price has now tightened to 3.3.

Looking over previous winners in Olympic years one thing becomes clear – that women have always struggled to get elected with just two of them becoming SPOTY since the turn of the century. We know as well from previous SPOTY elections that those contenders that have featured in events broadcast by the BBC tend to perform better.

Mike Smithson