Could Shadsy be the hero at Ladbrokes tonight?
Will the bookie win back its party sponsorship and more?
Judging by level of activity going through PB’s odds comparison micro-site the Ladbrokes market on the words that Gordon Brown will use in today’s Congress speech has been one of the most popular non-election political betting events that we’ve seen.
It will be recalled that punters have been offered odds on a range of words and phrases that the PM might use in the speech and if you you’ve chosen right then you win. The list of opening prices is here.
Thus one of them was “protectionism” at 2/1 which, interestingly, is the main theme in the BBC’s report this morning.
The market was created by Shadsy, the firm’s political specialist and regular contributor to PB. I like it because it’s not over-gimmicky and does require a degree of thought and consideration. In the end I just had a couple of bets – on “FDR” at 8/1 and “Keynes” at 20/1.
My guess is that Shadsy has been quite smart here picking up a range of popular Brownisms that have tempted us to part with our money and which won’t feature.
So if Ladbrokes do end up the winner on the day at least we’ve got the consolation that the firm is providing a lot of drink for the PB Fifth Anniversary Party on March 23rd.
Latest Brown Congress speech prices.
The afternoon on PB I’m driving to the North Norfolk coast after lunch. There’s a new thread due to be published at 2.45pm but I won’t be able to monitor the moderation box this afternoon. Things might get held up.
