Was French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio known as a favorite to win this year’s Nobel Prize in literature or was there some kind of an off the record disclosure? As numerous bettors have selected Le Clezio as the winner of the prestigious honor, the award jury has no other choice but to presume a leak.

In spite of the fact that the annual choice made by the Swedish Academy is known for the fact that it cannot be deduced effortlessly, the betting company Ladbrokes apparently registered an unexpectedly large number of bets on the French author just a couple of days prior to Thursday’s official announcement.

“I have a strong suspicion that there has been a leak in the system this time,” Horace Engdahl, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy informed The Associated Press via an e-mail on Friday. However, he did not give further details on the matter.

Witnessing such a general rush to speculate on Le Clezio, the betting firm Ladbrokes decided to stop the progress of betting on Wednesday.

The head of British betting agency Ladbrokes’ Nordic operations, Lasse Dilschmann, explained that they opted for closing when the odds for Le Clezio went from 15-to-1 to less than 2-1.

Everybody had expected for a European to be awarded with 2008’s Nobel Prize in literature, as Horace Engdahl told the AP last week that the United States could not possibly replace Europe as the nucleus of the literary world, a remark that unsurprisingly sparked much controversy. The permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy even said that American works were “too isolated” and “too insular” to represent a major force in literature.