From predicting how often the cameras will pan to Ronaldo's girlfriend to betting on the next election, novelty spread-betting is on the up, as Stephen McDowell reports.



The late, great Peter Cook might have said of it: 'The world is your lobster.' Surreal as that might sound, there are few worlds in the gambling universe where punters can make their own rules.



Imagine it: invent your own game, convince someone to offer you really tempting odds on it, bet and whe-hey - clean up! You could even build into it enough fallibility that you would get it wrong from time to time, lose, still have fun and therefore not get bored.



Well, not only does this gambling utopia exist, it has, according to the people who started it, reached around about its 10th anniversary (ish).