X Factor Betting: Holy Maloney - Chris is a huge price to win

Will Maloney's nerves hold out?

We're down to the last four of this year's X Factor and Eliot Pollak believes that there is still some huge value in backing Wildcard pick Christopher Maloney...

So here we are - the beginning of the end. Rylan Clake, finally, ended his campaign of glitter, and even he seemed relieved last night that the ordeal was over. Fifth is a pretty decent effort - certainly out of proportion to his talent. And don't worry, he'll now carve out a pretty decent niche over on ITV2.

Expect Rylan Air or some such BS to hit your screens in early 2013. Yeah we just throw out ideas for you tv execs free of charge. We give. We give. We give.

As for the rest, they head to the semi-finals next weekend. We are down to four: Union J, Jahmene Douglas, James Arthur, and that dreadful quivering Christopher Maloney fellow. And it remains a difficult one to call.

Union J won't win. Even megastars One Direction and JLS didn't win this show, so these mediocre lads have absolutely no chance. They'd do well to come third, and at 1.654/6 favourite to go next week, we would recommend taking the price. It is only going to get smaller, as Christopher-fever sweeps the tabloids over the coming days.

Arthur has been riding the crest of a wave recently with some excellent performances, and universal backing from the judges. If he won, he'd lend some much needed credibility to the show (maybe even save it), but therein lies the problem - it's The X Factor, it's not meant to be credible.

We have mentioned before that his armfuls of tattoos and the fact that his teeth appear to be growing in a million different directions appal most of the Middle England audience. So it is a big lay from us at 2.727/4 in the Winner market - a ridiculously short price, which simply ignores the fact that nobody like Arthur has ever won this programme. You could also lay him at 2.466/4 to finish as Top Male - he has no chance.

According to things like statistics and concrete facts, this should now really boil down to a head-to-head between Douglas and Maloney - neither of whom have featured in the Bottom Two yet - with one of the other two acts making up the numbers.

As things stand, Douglas looks a likely winner, a worthy favourite at 2.427/5. But there remains this nagging feeling that Maloney could supply the biggest reality TV upset of all time. Brave punters, put yourselves on Yellow Alert. Odds of 7.06/1 is a huge price at this stage of a contest. Get involved!