Ok, there is a fair amount of thumb twiddling occurring while we await the Draft so I thought it might be opportune to kill some time by getting fan reaction to the current chances of our Bolts and other teams of hoisting the Lombardi next February.

I'm a little unclear on whether discussing gambling per se is discouraged on the site, so let me say I'm not discussing or encouraging anyone actually betting based on these odds, just what everyone's opinion is of the market as it stands. Anyway, I see links on the right to other stories on the site on SB odds so I presume it's ok. If not, you won't be reading this - because John will have deleted this Fanpost, banned me, and will be dancing (badly) around the office in celebration.

These are odds I have taken from the Aussie TAB (Totaliser Agency Board) which is basically our government commissioned betting outlet. Despite there being 478 ways to bet on a horse race and our own AFL here, it's understandably limited when it comes to the NFL. We can bet head to head, at the line, accumulators thereof, and most importantly for this discussion, the SB champs.

I would presume these odds are pretty much what is being offered by sports bookmakers Stateside, give or take a point or so. I'll list the market after the jump and I'd like to hear opinions on who they think is over or under the odds and who is everyone's pick and Smokie.

As by way of explanation, the odds are framed on a return per dollar here eg $7.00 for the Green Bay Packers means they are considered a 6/1 chance. Our enigmatic Bolts are therefore 18/1 at this time.

I'll start the discussion rolling by saying I was a little surprised that Houston were equal 3rd pick (divisional weakness there I guess), Denver have also obviously shortened dramatically with the Manning factor and I thought 15/1 for the Giants to repeat wasn't bad value. And I'm thinking that unsaintly New Orleans will drift out by the time Goodall is done with them

For a real smokie, I don't mind Atlanta @ 25/1 for a team that only lost in the playoffs to the eventual champs, albeit badly. They might find themselves in a division no longer as strongly dominated by the Saints

As for San Diego, well, who the hell knows. Could be great value if we can play to our ability. Or not. I guess we will know by Christmas if we are still foot shooters extraordinaire.

I know a lot can happen between now and September but...any early thoughts? This is your chance to make a bold prediction in print that we can all laugh at in February. Or be Nostradamus