MOSCOW (Reuters) - Opinion polls make Sergei Ivanov the favorite to be Russia's next president and now bookmakers - renowned for being canny judges of form - are backing him for the Kremlin top job too.

Internet gaming operator Unibet has made First Deputy Prime Minister Ivanov its favorite, with odds of 2.2 to one, in the race to win the 2008 presidential election and replace outgoing President Vladimir Putin. Ivanov's fellow First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is his nearest rival with odds of 3.75 to one, according to the Maltese-registered bookmaker. The third favorite, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, is at ten to one.

Some academics say betting on elections can be better at forecasting results than opinion polls. They say someone placing a bet has money riding on the result and so will tend to make a more sober choice than a respondent in an opinion poll.

The latest poll by Russia's Levada Centre gave 31 percent support to Ivanov, a 54-year-old who like his boss Putin is a former Soviet spy from St. Petersburg. The same poll put Medvedev on 27 percent.

Ivanov denies he has any intention of running for president, as do all the pro-Kremlin figures linked with the race. But that has not stopped feverish speculation about who will run and whom Putin will endorse to replace him.