Didim Today

Girl group Little Mix have triumphed in this year's The X Factor, beating Marcus Collins in the live final at Wembley Arena. The foursome, who were put together from the solo entrants at the audition stage, have become the first group ever to win the ITV1 talent show.

They were jubilant on hearing the news, only able to screech and say "oh my god!" for a couple of minutes. Then Jesy managed to just about get a sentence out, saying: "This is never gonna sink in, we cannot thank the public enough." The girls had emerged as the favourites over the last week, also seeing off the previous favourite Amelia Lily in the Saturday night show.

There were no hard feelings from Marcus though, and he said: "These girls really deserved it." The "Little Muffins", as mentor Tulisa rather embarrassingly referred to them, performed a memorable version of Silent Night - prompting some wild praise from judge Louis Walsh.

He said: "I'm going to predict this time next year this is going to be the biggest girl band in the UK by a mile." You want our predictions? OK then: Kelly won't be back next year (y'all). Tulisa will guest on several Little Mix tracks and then join them when her solo career falters, Marcus will be in Chicago on the West End stage inside 18 months.

Oh, and Tulisa's sideways arm gesture will still look rubbish next year. Following their stunning victory on the X-Factor, William Hill have seen money for Little Mix to grab the Christmas number one spot and have cut their odds slightly from 15/8 to 13/8 to do so.

The girl group are up against it however, as Hills make Gareth Malone’s Military Wives the odds-on favourites (at 4/7) to scoop the festive top spot.

Little Mix will be pushing their version of Cannonball and Damien Rice’s version has gone straight into the betting as the 12/1 fourth favourite behind Nirvana (8/1). “After Little Mix were announced as the winners, we saw a rush of bets on them reaching the Christmas number one spot but they remain quite a way behind Gareth Malone’s Military Wives Choir who are sensationally the favourites,” said Hill’s spokesman Rupert Adams After his typically polished performance on Saturday’s final, Michael Buble has become the new favourite to have the number one album at 8/15 with Amy Winehouse 11/8. “Amy is the current number one but the Buble Album is the perfect present and we expect sales to rocket in Christmas week,” said Hill’s spokesman Rupert Adams.