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Netherland must be favourite for Bookie Prize

By Matt | September 11, 2008

Netherland, Joseph O’Neill’s bestselling novel, must surely be the betting favourite for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year – also known as the Bookie Prize – after it missed out on a place on the Booker Prize shortlist.

Bookmaker William Hill had made Netherland its favourite for the prestigious book award – but neither it, nor Salman Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence, which was second-favourite in the betting – has made the judge’s final list.

Instead, Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture occupies the new favourite’s spot at odds of 2/1.

“We were convinced that the winner would be either Joseph O’Neill or Salman Rushdie and are amazed that neither even made the shortlist,” said Hills spokesman Graham Sharpe on Tuesday.

Netherland’s failure comes despite the universality of its appeal (surely everyone can identify with a book about cricket in post-9/11 New York?) but its subject matter may well guarantee it success in another field.

At the time the long list was announced, Sharpe announced that Hills felt Netherland could be the first book to win both the Booker Prize and the William Hills Sports Book of the Year.

Did the bookies’ pricing up of the book award betting market reflect their own opinions of the novel rather than its real chances of scooping the Booker?

If so then Netherland must be in with a good chance of winning the Sports Book award, which has often taken an esoteric view of sports literature, given that Sharpe sits on the award’s judging panel.

Yes, some years the Bookie Prize has been won by a populist biography, but the Hills judges try and reward serious writing wherever possible.

That, for me, makes Netherland the front runner for the Bookie Prize, despite its ejection from the Booker.

Topics: Books and literature