William Hill has made the Japanese capital 11/10 favourite to follow London and Rio de Janeiro as Summer Games host.

However, the British gambling giant still envisages an open contest, with Madrid quoted at 7/4 second-favourite and Istanbul, somewhat surprisingly, the outsider at 11/4.

"You can make a good case for all three of the shortlisted cities, but Tokyo ticks every box and we think they are the frontrunners," said a William Hill spokesman.

Tokyo was already declared as the bookmaker's favourite of six cities last September, but at longer odds of 2/1.

William Hill can claim to have read the race relatively well so far, since it had listed Baku and Doha – the two applicant cities eliminated this week – as joint 14/1 outsiders in that initial list.


It had, however, rated Rome, which withdrew its candidacy, at 9/4 joint second-favourite.

The three survivors will now step up the pace of their campaigns.

Tokyo, which hosted the Games nearly half a century ago in 1964, is budgeting a massive $77.8 million (£49.7 million/€61.9 million) for the second and decisive phase of the contest, having earmarked just $5.5 million (£3.5 million/€4.4 million) for the race until now.

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