The highly renowned Australian bookmakers Sportsbet has offered odds for the Gold Coast at $1.50 (£0.93) and Hambantota at $2.50 (£1.55) for the vote at the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) General Assembly here on Friday (November 11).

''It's really just a judgment call,'' said Sportsbet spokesman Haydn Lane.

"We've been right through all the news articles and we're probably a little bit biased

''But, with respect to the Hambantota, we think the Gold Coast has a far better set-up and therefore are deserved favourites.''

TAB Sportsbet spokesman Glen Munsie added that the Gold Coast were overwhelming favourites at $1.30 (£0.81) with Hambantota trailing at $3.40 (£2.11).

He said his organisation was unable to offer this bet type under the terms of their licence in New South Wales and Victoria but that it provided the indicative market for promotional purposes.

''Political instability combined with the organisational problems that plagued the last time a Commonwealth Games was held in an Asian city [Delhi 2010] means the Sri Lankan delegates will have a tough task to convince Commonwealth Games organiser to go with them,'' he said.

But despite the confidence of Australian bookmakers, the Australian Commonwealth Games Association chief executive Perry Crosswhite, who travelled with the Gold Coast 2018 bid team here, admitted that the chance of the Games improving the struggling nation could be a major strength.

"They are really two contrasting bids," he said.

"The Gold Coast is from a country which has held the Games four times before and done all of them very well and very successfully.

"Then we have got a country which has not hosted the Games before and is one that is emerging from the civil war and the natural disaster of the tsunami.

"In their case it's growing and it's all about development."

Crosswhite added that the team here is starting to get nervous  ahead if the vote but had done all they could.

"Most of the work is done and what the last few days are really about is ensuring trust with the delegates that we will actually deliver what we say we will deliver," he said.

"You always get to a point where, like any competition, you work as hard as you can until the end but you really don't know the result."

The announcement of the 2018 Commonwealth Games host city will be made by CGF President Mike Fennell of Jamaica here at St Kitts Marriott Resort at 6pm local time following final presentations from the two bidding cities.

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