A gambling website’s favorite as Microsoft’s next chief executive officer is Stephen Elop, the Nokia Oyj CEO who has presided over a 62 percent decline in market value.

Elop, a former Microsoft executive, has 5-to-1 odds to be hired as Steve Ballmer’s successor, according to Ladbrokes Plc, the U.K.-based gambling operator. He leads a pool including internal candidates Kevin Turner and Julie Larson-Green and outsiders like Apple CEO Tim Cook — a 100-to-1 dark horse.

Ballmer is expected to step down sometime in the next year.

Microsoft is searching for a CEO who can help it fight back against competition in mobile, search, video, gaming and personal-computing development.

Elop was the president of Microsoft’s business division, where he was in charge of Microsoft Office, before taking the top job at Nokia.

On Sept. 10, 2010, when the Finland-based company hired Elop, it was trading at 7.79 euros a share. Nokia fell to 2.96 euros yesterday in Helsinki.