Bob Dylan is now second favourite to win the Nobel prize for literature this autumn, thanks to a wave of bets on the singer.
Dylan is now 10/1 to win the prestigious award, with Japanese writer Haruki Murakami topping the bookies poll with odds of 7/1, The Guardian reports.
According to a spokesperson for bookmakers Ladbrokes, Dylan has been “backed from 33/1 into 10/1 thanks to some decent £100-plus bets… One of the big bets comes from Norway, the others are UK-based”. The average stake on Dylan to bag the Nobel is around £40, they said.
Alongside his music, Dylan authored a collection of poetry and prose titled Tarantula in 1971 as well as his memoir Chronicles in 2004, which he recently revealed he working on a sequel for. However, this is unlikely to place him ahead of other literary big guns who have won the award before, including TS Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Doris Lessing.
Ladbrokes believes it’s highly unlikely the singer will ever win prize, but that’s not stopped his fans bidding on him again this year: “We’re happy to ‘fill the satchel’ in bookmaking terms as we expect the Dylan backers to part with their cash again this year.”