LONDON, January 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- With a famous showdown between man and machine looming, bookmakers Bodog.com are sad to report that IBM's Computer, known as Watson, is the odds-on favorite to beat both Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. IBM's supercomputer, Watson, will compete in an edition of the popular US quiz show Jeopardy next month for a prize of USD$1m (GBP634,000). 

Ken Jennings, who once won 74 Jeopardy games in a row, is the 5/2 to win the show that will be screened over three days from February 14-16.

Brad Rutter, who scored the most money with winnings of more than $3m, is also a 5/2 chance.

While listening to highly interesting talks on cutting-edge statistical issues at PHYSTAT 2011, I have casually been reading this morning a paper recently posted on the arxiv, which was pointed out to me by a Cypriot friend, Alex (thanks, Alex!).

The authors (J. Baglio, A. Djouadi, S. Ferrag,