Geelong's Gary Ablett the strong favourite for Brownlow glory as longshot Daniel Rich of Brisbane is heavily backed

BROWNLOW Medal punters have splurged on Gary Ablett Jr despite him being beaten as a hot favourite at the past two counts.

BRISBANE Lions young gun Daniel Rich has been the target of a longshot betting plunge but Gary Ablett remains a strong favourite for tonight's Brownlow.

TAB Sportsbet have taken a bet of $500,000 to $1000 at odds of 1000-1 on the blonde-haired teenager who carried off the Rising Star award last month.

Rich, a 2008 draft pick, played in every game for the Lions this season.

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Punters have poured almost $300,000 on Ablett to win the Brownlow, cutting his odds from $2.75 to $2.20.

TAB Sportsbet will hold more than $4 million on 51 different betting markets on the Brownlow.

Collingwood's Dane Swan and Sydney's Adam Goodes have also been well backed at $6 and $7 respectively.

Most of the money placed on the Brownlow comes in the last 24 hours before the count, with most of it today being placed on the Geelong star.

Ablett is the favourite for the third successive year, despite him being beaten as a hot favourite at the past two counts.

Betting shops around Australia has reported a flood of money for the Geelong champion over the past 10 days.

Ablett started $2.25 favourite when equal sixth, but nine votes behind teammate Jimmy Bartel in 2007. Last year, as $2.75 favourite, he was beaten two votes when equal third behind Adam Cooney.

"That big money followed a stack of smaller bets and we had to make a change,'' TAB Sportsbet's Gary Davies said today.

"The strangest thing about the Ablett move is how much money has come since voting finished at the end of the home-and-away season.

"There's this weird pattern every year where punters jump on the leading Brownlow contenders who play well in the finals, even though they can't pick any votes for those games.

"This year's been exactly the same. Ablett's been $3.25 into $2.75 since round 22 and the other big go has been the other star of the finals, Nick Riewoldt. He's into $12 from $17 three weeks ago.''

By comparison, Carlton's Chris Judd has been an alarming betting drifter since the Blues were eliminated in the first week of the finals.

"He's been $7 out to $8.50 since then, but what's he done wrong?" Davies said.

Betfair's Jake Norton said Judd was out from $6 to $11.50 over the past three weeks.

Sports Alive's Gerard Daffy said the money for Ablett highlighted Geelong-mania in betting circles, following their trouncing of St Kilda last night.

"Now the Cats are into the Grand Final again, the punters are jumping on the $4.10 for double with Ablett to win the Brownlow and the Cats to win the flag,'' he said.

Norton said Ablett accounted for more than a third of all money matched on the Brownlow with the global betting giant.

"That's across the whole season, but he'd be closer to 50 per cent since round 22,'' he said.

"There's been a heap of bets of $1000 or more matched on him in the past few days. He's right into $2.94 now."

Brownlow betting certainly doesn't end when when tonight's count starts.

TAB Sportsbet and Betfair said betting "in the run" was a huge growth market.