Burial tipped for Mercury triumph

Mercury Prize: The nominees

Dubstep producer Burial is the bookmakers's favourite to win the Mercury Prize, which will be presented in London on Tuesday night.

The secretive, south London-based musician - real name Will Bevan - is the 4/6 front runner, ahead of Elbow, Radiohead and Laura Marling.

Chart favourites Adele and Estelle are trailing the field at 40/1, according to Ladbrokes.

Coverage of the Mercury Music Prize begins at 2200 BST on BBC Two.

Musical calibre

The Last Shadow Puppets, the side project of Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner, comes in at 16/1 along with folk group Rachel Unthank and the Winterset.

It is his third Mercury nomination in a row, following on from Arctic Monkeys' win in 2006 and a place on the shortlist last year.

MERCURY PRIZE - LEADING ODDS Burial - 4/6 Elbow - 5/2 Radiohead - 5/1 Laura Marling - 10/1 The Last Shadow Puppets - 16/1 Source: Ladbrokes

Neon Neon, another side project, this time headed by Super Furry Animals' singer Gruff Rhys, is also in the running and is an outside tip at 33/1.

Radiohead's In Rainbows receives its first major recognition from the Mercury panel - as it was first made available via download, making it ineligible for the charts and the Brit Awards earlier this year.

The album was sold to fans on a pay-what-you-want basis.

Some 240 albums - the highest number to date - were put forward for the prize, with a panel of experts determining the final shortlist of 12.

The winner will be selected on its musical calibre rather than chart performance.

In 2007, the Klaxons won the Mercury Prize ahead of Amy Winehouse and Arctic Monkeys, prompting a sales boost for their album Myths of the Near Future.