Great British Bake Off: Birmingham comedian Joe Lycett bookies’ favourite to take over from Matt Lucas on GBBO

Birmingham comedian Joe Lycett has emerged as the favourite to take over from Matt Lucas on Channel 4 reality baking contest The Great British Bake Off. Lycett currently has 7/2 odds with Ladbrokes, who published their top five odds for who might fill the role Matt Lucas recently vacated.

Lucas made his shock announcement earlier this week on Twitter, saying he couldn’t dedicate enough time to presenting and hosting both The Great British Bake Off and the revival of Fantasy Football League, currently airing on Sky Max. Noel Fielding, Paul Hollywood and Prue Leth still remain on the show.

Speaking of the odds, Bake Off betting expert at OLBG Jake Ashton remarked: “Comedian Joe Lycett seems like the perfect fit to slot in and replace Matt Lucas in the Bake Off presenter role and bookies think the same, making him the 7/2 favourite to take over from Lucas next.”

Lycett could be seen as an easy transition into the role, given his most recent work on BBC’s The Great British Sewing Bee which follows a similar format to The Great British Bake Off. Lycett is also no stranger to Channel 4 producers, having presented Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back for the broadcaster from 2019. That series included the now infamous stunts of Lycett changing his name to Hugo Boss and Hermes’ lost item policies.

The top five is rounded out by GBBO 2015 winner Nadiya Hussein (4/1), YouTube presenter and journalist Amelia Dimondenberg (5/1), while two alumni of BBC’s reality dancing contest series Strictly Come Dancing are the remaining two favourites, with Ellie Taylor at 6/1 and Bristol comedian Jayde Adams at 7/1.