11th Doctor casting- Betting Mystery

The BBC are at the centre of a betting mystery after a last-minute string of bets were placed on Matt Smith becoming the Eleventh Doctor.

According to The Telegraph, bets for Smith were suddenly cut from 33/1 to 1/3 just hours before the official announcement.

However, only a minority of BBC staff were aware of the casting, but, as of yet, there's no evidence to suggest than any of them leaked the information.

His casting was kept top secret until it was confirmed on a special edition of Doctor Who Confidential on Saturday. The promotional shots that were released later that evening were taken in an empty studio and the TARDIS was added later on, meaning that the photographers had no idea what they were taking the pictures for.

A spokesman for bookmaker Paddy Power said: "You don't bet on an unknown name like that without basing it on something. Some people seemed to know about him. However, the majority didn't and we were still taking far more money on favourites like Paterson Joseph, David Morrissey and James Nesbitt."

He added: "We don't believe there were irregular betting patterns and there was certainly nothing to set our alarm bells ringing."

Elsewhere, the BBC have been accused of dropping hints when they included Matt Smith as a list of potentional Time Lords during the lunchtime episode of BBC News on Saturday. A spokeswoman has insisted that it wasn't intentional and nobody on the news programme was aware of the Doctor's identity.