Spelling Bee championship finals: two finalists left in bid for for orthographic glory – live

• Florida's Bruhat Soma, 12, wins title in dramatic tiebreaker
• Why the Spelling Bee is more vital than ever in the age of AI
• National Spelling Bee quiz: can you beat the past winners?

I guess we shouldn't be surprised that you can gamble on this. According to one bookmaker, tonight's winning word is likeliest to be a noun (plus-180 odds) with fewer than 11 letters (minus-140) and more than 3 vowels (minus-150).

A couple of other sportsbooks have offered proposition bets on the gender of the champion, whether he or she will wear glasses, whether they will have braces, what state they'll hail from and whether a spell-off will be necessary. (That number, by the way, is 1-800-GAMBLER.)