By John W. Schoen, Senior Producer
While investors decide whether to place their bets on Facebook?s initial public offering of stock, there are plenty of other ways to gamble on one of the biggest IPOs on record.
Odds are the initial market value of the social networking giant will top rival Google?s moonshot IPO of $1.9 billion in 2004.?The odds are 1 to 10, according to UK bookmaker Ladbrokes. While it may be a ?safe bet,? it?s not a very good investment. (A 1-to-10 odds bet pays off a dime for every dollar put down.)
Investors looking for a higher-risk, higher-return wager could put money down that Mark Zuckerberg will still be the company?s CEO on the 1st of February 2017 (a $1 bet pays $3), according to Ladbrokes.
Or that Facebook will launch an application by 2030 that lets you vote in U.S. and U.K. government elections (six to one odds); that you?ll be able to use a Facebook app as a passport by 2030 (14 to one); that Facebook will launch a space mission before 2020 (100 to 1), or that Facebook will shut down for 30 consecutive days in 2012 (250 to 1)
That last bet isn?t so far-fetched; the company mentioned the risk of technical problems in its SEC filing for the IPO.
Shares of initial public offerings are famously tough to get your hands on before the stock begins trading. No worries. If you?re looking to get in on the excitement of the first trading day, why not just bet on where the stock will be priced at the open?
The odds are about even Facebook will come to market between $35 and $44.99 a share, according to U.K. bookmaker Paddy Power. The odds are longer that the price will be less than $25 a share (10 to 1) or higher than $65 a share. (9 to 2).
You can bet that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will be there to ring the opening bell at the stock exchange on the first day of trading. The odds of that happening are 1 to 100, according to Paddy Power. (A dollar bet on that outcome pays off a penny if Zuckerberg rings the bell.)
Bigger payoffs await punters who pick Facebook investor Sean Parker as the official bellringer; a Parker bet will pay off $25 per dollar if he steps forward on the balcony. And if Bono does the honors, your dollar bet pays off $100.
That Bono bet isn't a complete wild card: the Irish rocker?s investment company, Elevation Partners, bought 1 per cent of the social network giant in 2009 for $90 million. If Facebook is valued at, say, $90 billion, Bono's share would be worth $1 billion dollars.
His initial bet on the company, in other words, would pay off 10 to 1.
(Would you place one of these bets on - or against - Facebook? Share your thoughts on our FB page.)
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