Betting tips / Editor / 25 November 2009 / Leave a comment Bet Now View Market

Jenson Button has pole position for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, and rightly so, says Will Hamer.

Since 1954, when the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award started, only three people have won it twice. One was a boxer, heavyweight Sir Henry Cooper, who won in 1967 and again three years later.

Both of the other two dual winners are Formula One drivers - Damon Hill (1994 and '96) and the largely personality-free Nigel Mansell (1986 and '92).

What does this mean in the context of this year's award where the odds-on favourite is newly-crowned Formula One champ Jenson Button and his only two threats - and the only two other candidates below a double figure quote - are heptathlete Jessica Ennis and boxer David Haye?

Well, I'm almost prepared to rule out Haye. He is reasonably articulate for a boxer, and I think if he continues the knock-outs, he'll be a shoe-in for next year (unless England wins the World Cup in South Africa).

Haye just hasn't quite done enough, or for long enough, to nab it this year. And at $8, he's poor value.

Ennis is the wildcard. Only 11 women have won the award outright (12 if you include Jayne Torvill who shared the award with Christopher Dean in '84) and of them, six have been in athletics.

It's a good strike-rate and Ennis' heptathlon world champs win from August will still be fresh in voters' minds. But, yet again, I think her time will come later - after the London Olympics perhaps.

Button might be a short quote ($1.70) but is entitled to be. History is on his side. The award likes racing car drivers, he's just won the title and it took him a whopping 169 starts before he became world champion.

The only other driver to have had more starts before becoming champ was Nigel Mansell. And that was in 1992, the same year he won the second of his two BBC awards.

Tip: Take the short quote on Button. Lay anyone else other than Ennis