Irish contestant Brian Dowling is favourite to win this series of Big Brother and is receiving the "bulk of betting" despite the short odds on his victory, said Paddy Power Bookmaker.
The odds on his victory are 2/5, meaning a £5 bet will yield a £2 profit. If he wins this second series of the Channel 4 programme, Brian will receive the £70,000 prize.
The 23-year-old air steward is from Rathangan, Co Kildare.
"From week three onwards Brian has emerged as the clear favourite to be overall winner. In week three, he was 3/1 favourite and with the passing of each week he has shortened to this week's odds-on price of 2/5," said Mr Ken Robertson, head of marketing at Paddy Power.
"At current betting levels, should Brian go on to win the series, it will be a a bad result for us but a great result for our punters," he said.
Odds on victory for Brian, who is gay, were slashed when Londoner Bubble was evicted last week.
After Brian, the next favourite is Dean at 4/1; following by Elizabeth at 7/1; Josh at 8/1; Paul at 10/1; Helen at 12/1; and, finally, Amma at 25/1.
Amma is favourite to be evicted on Friday. Her odds on being the fifth person evicted were at 1/4 yesterday, while Paul's odds have moved to 5/2, said the bookmakers.
Brian's profile given on the Big Brother website www. channel4.com/bigbrother describes his personality as "bubbly, intelligent, bold, tidy, and honest".
It also lists his nickname as Bambie.
In the last series, Anna Nolan, a lesbian ex-novice from Crumlin, Dublin, came second. She narrowly lost to popular Liverpool contestant Craig Phillips. Anna won 49 per cent of the final vote.