Anybody would think that there’s an election coming up!

With the bookies trying to repeat the bonanza they enjoyed with the US presidential race lots of effort is going on to create betting interest on May 5, if that is when it is.

The challenge is that unlike last November the UK election is seen as a foregone conclusion – the only question at issue being the size of Blair’s majority.

IG Index has just opened this a a spread market which we expect will become the key betting barometer over the next 2 months.

They are quoting 65 – 72.This market can go negative.

In other words for every seat they win below 323, this will count as minus 2. Thus Labour win 330 seats, Majority = 14. Labour win 310 seats, Majority = -26.

This is much more straightforward than the new Betfair winning majority market which seems to be for both Labour and the Tories.

Betfair’s Labour Seats market adds a lot of new options and you need to check carefully on our odds comparison pages to get the best value. There are now 15 separate seat ranges to choose from.

Politicalbetting Our bandwidth usage is now heading towards 1GB per day. Our only income is from small commissions we are paid on bets being placed through links on the site and for new spread acounts that are opened. This goes nowhere near to covering costs. If you are betting please use the links.

© Mike Smithson 2005