City of Culture race has Plymouth in contention

PLYMOUTH is among the favourites to be named UK City of Culture 2029 - with Exeter a rank outsider.

- By WILLIAM TELFORD

Experts at the Online Betting Guide (OLBG) have placed Britain’s Ocean City as second favourite to land the coveted title and its £10m prize.

With the window for entries closing soon, Plymouth currently sits only behind Wrexham, with its Hollywood connections, in OLBG’s list of predictions.

The company gives Wrexham, which only became a city in 2022, odds of 4/6 and a 60% probability of landing the title.

But it puts Plymouth next with odds of 6/4 and a 40% probability of success and highlights its “coastal identity and cultural infrastructure”.

Devon neighbour Exeter and dockyard rival Portsmouth are the outliers in the list, joint bottom with 6/1 odds and only a 14.3% implied probability of winning.

The window for entries closes on Sunday, February 8, and so far nine “cities” have thrown their hat into the ring.

Others bidding for the title include Ipswich and Blackpool, both of which OLBG give odds of 2/1, Peterborough, at 3/1, Bristol, at 4/1, and Swindon, with odds of 5/1.