A word of caution for Werner Seifert: One City sage thinks his bid for the London Stock Exchange is doomed. David Buik, odds setter and marketing chief at financial bookie firm Cantor Index, is chalking up Euronext as the 10-11 favorite to win a bidding war for the LSE. That puts the Paris interest ahead of Seifert's Deutsche Börse, at even money, and the New York Stock Exchange, at 8-1.

Buik admits that the market is more of a lark than a serious attempt to make money -- the maximum bet is only £50 ($94). He says that his only goal is to create "a real barometer of market opinion." So what has he observed? "Initially, there was a real weight of money for the Germans, pushing them to 4-9. That has reversed."

Buik, who says he "arrived in the City shortly after Noah disembarked from the ark" and who spent 37 years in money brokering at Exco, has his money-- only figuratively -- on Euronext. "They are French," he says, "so they don't care about what their shareholders think. They will pay what it takes, as it is the last roll of the dice."

As of late last month, Euronext had not yet officially bid; nor had the NYSE. Deutsche Börse did make a late-January conditional offer of £1.3 billion that was rejected by the LSE board as too low.

And when the LSE saga finally comes to a close, what fresh drama will consume Buik's attention? The looming question of who will succeed Rod Eddington as CEO of British Airways.