Posted on Wednesday, June 06, 2007 (EST)
British bookmaker William Hill has stopped taking bets on whether Harry Potter dies in the final book about the schoolboy wizard, a spokesman said Wednesday, as the countdown to its release hots up.
LONDON (AFP) - The seventh and last work, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", goes on sale in Britain on July 21.
Author J. K. Rowling has said she will kill off two characters, but kept quiet on which ones they are.
William Hill said that all the betting had been on the eponymous hero dying.
The bookmaker stands to lose 17,000 pounds (34,000 dollars, 25,000 euros) if Potter dies.
"We created a market saying yes or no: will he be one of the people killed, and if every single person says yes he will, then the market suddenly becomes unviable. We had to close that betting," William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams told AFP.
Now the betting is on who will kill Potter in his final year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
In the "which rotter will pot Potter?" stakes, Lord Voldemort is the favourite at 2-1, Severus Snape is 5-2, Draco Malfoy, Ron Weasley and Potter himself are 6-1 with Neville Longbottom at 12-1.
"The big theory we're seeing a lot of in terms of letters coming in is that Harry himself is a Horcrux," explained Adams.
"A lot of people seem to think that the scar on his head marks him as one of the Horcruxes."
If he is, "to ensure that Voldemort dies, he will need to be sacrificed.
"Will he ask his mate -- which is why Ron's so short at 6/1 -- will he do himself in, and then thirdly is Neville Longbottom," who has been the biggest mover in the betting, up from 100-1.
The Harry Potter books have sold 325 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 64 languages, as well as being converted into a successful film franchise.
Potter's adventures at Hogwarts have made Rowling an estimated one billion dollars.
The fifth movie in the series is due for release about one week before the final book is released.
http://news.sawf.org/Entertainment/38202.aspx
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