Meghan Markle Pregnancy Odds Drop As Speculation About A Baby Announcement Increases

Meghan Markle is pregnant and is going to announce it soon – at least, that appears to be the collective opinion of British bookmakers. As The Mirror reports, oddsmakers across the British Isles are slashing odds on bets for the Duchess of Cambridge announcing a pregnancy, leading to speculation that there really is a royal bun in the oven.

The first thing we need to get out of the way is an explanation of something in the first paragraph that may have struck the wrong note with American readers. Our gambling laws are quite a bit stricter than they are in the U.K. and Ireland – over there it’s perfectly legal, and indeed it’s a thing, to place bets on things other than the outcomes of sporting events. Indeed you can place a bet on Donald Trump getting impeached before a certain time, or you can bet on Princess Eugenie stumbling over her words when she recites her vows when she gets married in a couple of weeks, and so on.

Bettors have been putting down money on Meghan Markle announcing a pregnancy since before the ink was dry on her marriage license. At the time, oddsmakers were offering action in the neighborhood of 4/6, meaning that a bet of £6 (about $7.85) would win you £4 (about $5.24) back, plus your initial bet of course.

Meghan Markle Lets Her Dog Poop on Buckingham Palace Grounds https://t.co/3ISHKVGQat

— TMZ (@TMZ) September 13, 2018

In recent days, bookmakers have slashed the odds on the Meghan Markle pregnancy bet, however. According to bet-aggregating site bookmakers.tv, the odds of Meghan announcing a pregnancy have dropped to 1/5. That means that you’d have to put down £5 just to win £1 back (plus your initial bet).

“The odds of Meghan and Harry sharing some good news soon have taken another plunge. The latest betting definitely suggests there could be an announcement around the corner and when it comes bookies should brace themselves for the biggest royal betting frenzy of all time.”

You may read that and conclude that it’s all just rumor-mongering – and that could very well be. But here’s a point to consider: bookies are businessmen, and money is on the line. They’re not going to go changing their odds and the razor-thin profit margin therein if there wasn’t something to it.

So what’s the “evidence” that there’s another Windsor headed this way? Well, as is often the case with celebrity women of childbearing age, internet sleuths love to pore over every pixel of every photograph, looking for any sign of an expanding abdomen. And in Meghan’s case, she was recently photographed wearing a dress that appeared to show the tiniest of baby bumps.

Of course, any number of things could explain that “baby bump.” It could be the way the garment was hanging across her abdomen at the moment the camera snapped. She could have had a big lunch. It could be bad lighting.

Or she could be pregnant. Unless and until Kensington Palace makes an official announcement, there’s no telling.

But British bookmakers are willing to put money on it – literally – that the duchess is expecting.