Big winnings for those who acted fast

I hope that many PBC regulars had a profitable Thursday for in the fortnight before the election there were what proved to be some amazing betting bargains to be had – all of them reported by contributors on the site.

The best bet seems to have been that 10/1 that was available for a short time on the Lib Dems taking control of Richmond. This tightened sharply to 7/2 as PBC punters piled in but a number have reported very big profits.

Another borough where big money was to be made was Hammersmith and Fulham where you could have got 13/2 on the Tories gaining control. Again that tightened 6/4 as news of the price got out and eventually the bookmaker, SportingOdds withdrew the markets

A third good winning bet was on Camden moving to no overall control. There the price reached 6/1 at one stage and many PB.C users bet as much as the bookie would allow them.

I do not know whether Sporting Odds made a profit on the local elections but I doubt it. My guess is that they’ve lost quite a lot because this showed the perils for bookmakers of moving into areas where real specialist knowledge is required.

Interestingly Sporting Odds now have the tightest Tory General Election price of 4/6 while Labour has moved out to 11/10. This must be the first time in a decade and a half when Labour has not been favourite to win most seats in the next General Election.

The great lesson from this is that if you see what you think is a good price – act straight away. Others will see the value as well.

Mike Smithson