Election Betting Warming Up
Article Published:
26/01/2010 10:56:49
It’s General Election year in the UK, and although the chances are high that the election itself won’t take place for a few more months, the interest in election betting is already warming up. Over at the Paddy Power online sports betting site there are quite a few election markets that the politically minded bettor can get involved in, so for those who might like to obtain some early odds about their own opinion, here are the highlights that are most likely to be of interest…
Next Labour Leader
We all know that Gordon Brown will hang onto leadership for as long as humanly possible, but he will go eventually, and when that happens someone else must step into his shoes. The favourite to do this at the time of writing is David Milliband at 3/1, closely followed by Alan Johnson at 7/2. Ed Milliband is third in the betting at 4/1 and Harriet Harman is 15/2. It’s 9/1 bar, so if you fancy Peter Mandelson or Alistair Darling for the top Labour job, you’ll get a very good payoff if you’re right.
May 6th Election
Thursday 6 May has been touted as the most likely date for the election itself, but will the big event actually take place on that date? There are just two options in this market, and the odds are 1/6 for Yes and 7/2 for No.
Turnout Percentage
It is never the case that 100% of the people entitled to vote actually do so, and this makes betting on the percentage of people that do ‘turnout’ to vote an interesting proposition. Paddy Power seems to be expecting a high turnout, with odds of 11/8 for a turnout of 65-69.99%. It’s 9/4 for 60-64.99% and 5/2 for 70% or more. The pessimists among you might be interested to note that odds of 40/1 are being offered for a turnout of 50% or less.
Lib Dem Support
There has been a lot of talk about the possibility of a hung parliament after the next election, and this market asks you to predict who you think the Liberal Democrats would support in that situation – Labour or the Conservatives. The odds are 10/11 that the Lib Dems won’t support either party, 7/4 that they will support a Conservative Minority and 3/1 that they will support a Labour Minority. In the event that no hung parliament situation arises, all bets in this market will be declared void.
There are many other related markets that you can also get involved in (for example, who will be the next Chancellor of the Exchequer, and will it rain in London on May 6th) so if the coming election is whetting your appetite for some political betting, visit the Paddy Power sportsbook and take a look at the opportunities that are available.
