Gambling sites favor Cardinals Marc Ouellet, Peter Turkson, Francis Arinze as next Pope

February 11, 2013 With news of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation only hours old, online gambling sites have already published odds for who will become the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church, with  and  as early odds-on favorites.

Online Australian gambling site SportsBet has Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet as their favorite with 7/2 odds. The Irish brokers has 11/4 odds with the Canadian Cardinal being chosen as Pope. Bwin has Ouellet becoming the next Pope with odds at 7/2. British SportingBet also has odds for Ouellet at 7/2.

British has Nigerian Cardinal  with 7/2 odds.

has the betting odd for Ghanian Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson at 7/2, its best odds for any potential Papal candidate. BetVictor also has the best odds on Turkson with 5/2. Stan James has the best odds for Turkson at 3/1. You Win has odds for Turkson at 5/2.

Bets are also being taken by Paddy Power for the name of the next Pope, with Peter their odds-on favorite at 2/1. It is followed by Pious at 5/1, and John Paul and John at 6/1.