Why is there zilch betting interest in the Scottish and Welsh elections?

These are the latest prices from Betfair on this May’s devolved elections in Scotland and Wales. As you can see the betting has hardly caught the imagination of punters with less than £400 having been traded on the Edinburgh Parliament result and a paltry £77 on Cardiff.

Just look at the Scottish numbers – both Labour and the SNP are at prices much tighter than evens. That does not add up. Also look at the massive gap between the “back” and “lay” prices. There’s almost zilch interest and almost aero liquidity. The less said about Wales the better.

One of the repeated criticisms of Betfair on PBC is that the betting exchange has not opened a market on the Deputy Labour leadership on which I know a lot of serious political punters want to be able to back and lay – something that you can only do on a betting exchange.

I wonder whether one of the reasons is that Betfair has resisted our requests is that activity on some recent political markets has been so low.

With Betfair the bookmaker does not set the odds. This is left to punters to come on the exchange to offer prices. Given all the interest north of the border why is this not happening?

Mike Smithson