After a big run of bets placed in March, Ladbrokes had already shut the windows on whether the engagement would be announced within 2017. First, to be clear: the betting that has been serially eliminated was not on whether an engagement was forthcoming, considered a long-done deal. The betting was on how (read: when) the relevant palaces – Buckingham (the Queen) and Kensington (the boys) – would manage the announcement of the engagement. The staff at Kensington Palace – not to mention the baying bloodhound royal-section editors of Fleet Street, their battalions of paparazzi, and literally every high-end London retailer from jewelers to purveyors of organic jams – are in overdrive right this second. No word on the handle yet, but we'll get a better feel for that when Kensington Palace next hits the headlines.

Source: Forbes November 24, 2017 06:22 UTC