Simon Cowell Leaving American Idol: All Bets Off

(Gambling911.com Entertainment Betting) - The online bookmakers are yet to begin offering odds on whether American Idol's acid-tongue judge, Simon Cowell, will be leaving the show following its 2010 run.  For now books like BetUS.com are limiting themselves to odds on the sex of the winner (both lines were at -120)

This may be the last season for the online sportsbooks to celebrate American Idol betting.  That's because by year's end, the show may lose two of its original and beloved judges, Paula Abdul and Cowell.  The later judge's brother has been saying that Simon is going to leave American Idol in order to bring his popular UK talent show, X Factor, stateside.  Abdul already left this past summer.

The show has already lost a significant chunk of its ratings share over the past two seasons and a shakeup of this nature will likely result in further erosion. 

Likewise, online bookmakers have noticed a decline in betting on the show as well.

"The volume in terms of viewers was such that all those small $5 bets really added up," said Payton O'Brien, Senior Editor of the Gambling911.com website.

In its heyday, Idol was bringing in a couple million dollars to the online gambling sector during the season with much of the bets coming in the 24 hours leading up to the finale.

"A press statement is being prepared which will confirm what everybody expected: Simon will leave Idol at the end of 2010," Tony Cowell said.

But the podcast Tony broadcast earlier in the day was pulled abruptly a few hours later.  Neither Simon nor his publicist would comment on the story.

Jordan Bach, Gambling911.com