Ireland’s leading hope of landing an Oscar rests heavily on the shoulders of Saoirse Ronan this Sunday at the 2018 Oscars ceremony.
Although Frances McDormand is currently an odds-on shot at 1/14 to land the gong in the Best Actress category for her part in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Saoirse is second favourite in the betting at 10/1. The Lady Bird star was as short as 3/1 initially, however the Irish Hollywood heavyweight has drifted significantly since.
But despite what the odds are indicating, we reckon Ronan deserves to win – so much so that we’ve paid out on all bets placed on her to walk away with the all-important golden figurine in the Best Actress category, rewarding punters who have kept the faith in the process.
Open the envelope on your Oscars betting at PaddyPower.com
Punters backing Ronan got the welcome windfall amidst the snow when we decided to take the patriotic plunge, regardless of the fact that her fate still remains in the hands of the Academy.
On Tuesday afternoon we coughed up prematurely on all bets placed, both online and in our shops, for Saoirse to win the gong.
Asked about the decision to pay out spokesman Paddy Power said: “This is the third time that Saoirse Ronan has been nominated for an Oscar after the 23-year-old got the nod for Brooklyn (Best Actress) in 2016 and Atonement (Best Supporting Actress) in 2008.
“We’re sick of seeing her hit the crossbar, so we’ve decided to take matters into our own hands. We think she’s a winner – even if she did make a bit of a wally of herself in that SNL sketch – so we’ve settled all bets on her to reflect that. It’s cost us about €30,000 all told, but the look on our customers faces when we told them was Oscar worthy.”
Ireland also have many other names in the mix this weekend, but it’s Saoirse’s name that shot to the forefront of people’s minds in connection with this year’s Oscars, and they have voted with their pockets in huge support of the Carlow native.
With a total of seven nominations for Irish writer-director Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, it’s a massive 90/1 long-shot that the flick won’t receive any Oscars for the dark comedy, and the team behind it look certain to clean up at this year’s event with three awards looking like the most likely haul (5/4).
Daniel Day-Lewis is currently a 25/1 shot to land the spoils in the Leading Actor category for his role in Phantom Thread. Consolata Boyle also received her third Oscar nomination this year with the unstoppable Irish costume designer nominated for her work on Victoria & Abdul (50/1).
Irish animated film The Breadwinner (12/1) is up against it in the category of Animated Feature Film as Coco seems an absolute sure thing (1/25) to win.
- For betting on all of the individual categories, plus a number of specials that include the likelihood of another epic blooper occurring this year (it’s 14/1 that a presenter will read out the wrong winner), please see our full list of Oscar related betting here.
* All odds correct at time of posting.