Nigeria's cardinal stormed forward on betting boards while Germany's Joseph Ratzinger slipped back today as the Vatican election to find the next pope whipped up gambling fever.
Three straight inconclusive votes between yesterday evening and this morning by cardinals locked in the Sistine Chapel jumbled the odds in the race to the papal throne.
Cardinal Ratzinger remained the frontrunner on two online betting sites to succeed Pope John Paul, but Nigeria's Francis Arinze leapfrogged him on Irish bookmaker Paddy Power's books with 7-2 after heavy betting on him from Nigeria.
That compared to the German's fading showing of 11-2.
The cardinals' electoral moves, communicated so far only by plumes of black smoke from the Vatican's Sistine Chapel, have whipped up the interest of gamblers, whose appetite may have been whetted by the 26-year gap since the last conclave.
"So far the interest has been absolutely massive," Paddy Power said. "We're really surprised. It's the biggest ever non-sporting event that we've offered betting on. We've taken over 10,000 bets now, today, as of this morning."
Cardinal Ratzinger's inability to muster the required two-thirds of the votes cast by the 115 cardinals in the first three ballots dented his status as the early favourite to succeed John Paul.
"Ratzinger is on the slide," Mr Power said. "He was 3-1 two days ago. Now he's down to 6-1 and 11-2, so he's sliding all the time. People aren't putting money on him anymore."
The cardinal (78) still had the shortest odds on British bookmaker William Hill's site at 7-2, however, as well as for online bookmaker Intertops.com at 3-2.
But Dr Arinze (72), had jumped to first place on Paddy Power's site and to second place on both William Hill's and Intertops.
Dr Arinze, who would be the first African pope in more than 1,500 years, is seen by many as a possible conservative alternative to Cardinal Ratzinger.