Bookies face Christmas Number 1 payout

Bookmakers William Hill are having to face up to a record breaking payout after Rage Against the Machine beat X Factor's Joe McElderry to the 2010 Christmas Number 1 last night. Killing In The Name, sold 500,000 downloads beating X Factor winner Joe McElderry's The Climb by 50,000 copies to clinch the top spot.

Just ten days ago, William Hill had Rage Against The Machine as their 100/1 rank outsiders behind Jedward in the race for number one and at the close today they had been slashed all the way in to 1/5 (1.2).

"The industry will be paying out a large six figure sum after the greatest gamble was landed in Christmas number one history. It seems that punters who stood to win thousands have been multi downloading huge numbers. We started the day with festive cheer, which turned in to festive fear and now we are just in a festive rage." said William Hill's spokesman Rupert Adams.

"The adverse weather conditions in parts of the country has prevented some X Factor fans from getting out and buying a copy of Joe's release over the weekend." said HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo.