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Month: June 2004

Bookmaker withdraws from John McCain market

Bookmaker withdraws from John McCain market

We hope that more than a few Politicalbetting.com users managed to get some money on at 14-1 with PaddyPower on the Republican Senator, John McCain, becoming the Vice-Presidential running mate of John Kerry. Only a few hours after our post on Friday evening McCain’s name was deleted from the list of “runners” and now PaddyPower seems to have left the market all together. This is a real problem with this site. If a good value bet is spotted and we…

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Are the chances of this being the White House ticket better than 14-1?

Are the chances of this being the White House ticket better than 14-1?

Republican Senator John McCain sharing a platform with the Democrat’s John Kerry With all bets you have to ask yourself whether the possiblity of something happening is greater than the odds that are available. With just seven weeks to go before the Democratic party convention in Boston an online bookmaker has now opened a market on who the Democratic contender, John Kerry, will choose as his running mate. The favourite at the moment is John Edwards – the youthful Senator…

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Biking Boris Boosts Blair Backers

Biking Boris Boosts Blair Backers

Those political gamblers who have been backing Tony Blair to stay as Labour leader and Prime Minister have been given a boost by Boris Johnson’s report of the conversation he had in the Mall on his bike with fellow cyclist, Jonathan Powell – Tony Blair’s Chief of Staff. Asked by Johnson – the Spectator Editor and Tory MP – about relations between No 10 and the Treasury, Mr Powell is reported to have said: “It’s a Shakespearean tragedy. Gordon Brown…

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Labour’s back in the black..

Labour’s back in the black..

But will they lose Leicester South and if so – who to? After a few uncomfortable weeks when the spread betting gamblers on the Commons seat market had put Labour at below the level where they would have a Commons majority the latest spreads have the party comfortably above the 324 seat target – which gives them an absolute majority. Labour 325-335 Conservative 245-255 LIBd 52-57 This is in response to the pre-Euro Election opinion polls showing increased support for…

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Markets shrug off election day strike threat

Markets shrug off election day strike threat

Hughes moves up further in the polls On the face of it the decision of the RMT union to hold an Underground strike on June 10 – the day of the London Mayoral Election – would seem to be manner from heaven for the Norris and Hughes campaigns. Any reminder of Ken Livingstone’s left-wing links would seem to reinforce the determination of non-Labour voters to turn-out and that must be bad news for Ken. The whole Livingstone campaign has been…

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Playing the Election Date game

Playing the Election Date game

An ideal opportunity for betting exchange novices. The new market Betfair, has just opened on the date of the next UK General Election offers good profit opportunities and provides a vehicle for people not used to this form of gambling to learn about betting exchanges where notions like “the election date” can be traded like a stock or share. The “runners” are three month segments running from now until 2006 when Tony Blair has, by law, to go to the…

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YouGov has to be more “transparent”

YouGov has to be more “transparent”

Commons call for an investigation into the pollsters – now a big test The group of leading Labour MPs that has put down a Commons motion calling for an investigation into opinion polling firms over fears that ‘questionable methodology’ is “skewing the political process and tarnishing the industry’s reputation” will be able to get some empirical information next week on the effectiveness of the internet-based pollster, YouGov. For they will be able to compare YouGov’s predictions on the Elections with…

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