Who’s going to win the Glenrothes betting war?

There are more betting opportunities on next Thursday’s Glenrothes by election and this one, from PB’s spread-betting sponsor, Sporting Index, allows you to have a punt on which party will end up third.

Thus if you bought the Tories at 3 points and they did make it to third then you would win twice your stake unit. If they lost you would lose three times the amount. Sounds complicated? Well the firm is offering to give a free copy of my book, “The Political Punter” to all those who sign up for an account through the links on this site and have a first bet.

I find this a hard call – because it was only two and half years ago that the Lib Dems pulled off their sensational victory over Labour in the seat next door – Dunfermline.

Meanwhile there have been reports that both the SNP and Labour are urging their activists to bet on their respective parties to show that they have the momentum.

According the The Scotsman emails are being sent out by a group linked with the SNP urging this action.

The email says: “It is essential that everyone does this, as our intelligence indicates money is going into William Hill’s from Labour activists throughout the UK in order to make them bookies’ favourites. If you have no previous experience of going into a betting shop then don’t worry – they are most helpful. The young woman who placed this bet had never ever been in a betting shop in her life before, and just went up to the desk and asked for help.”

This seems to have been kicked off by Labour and Michael Crick reported on Newsnight last night that the party faithful were being asked to put a tenner on.

My view is that the political atmosphere is not as highly charged as it was in July for Glasgow East and there just might be less of a desire to give Labour a good kicking. If that’s the case then you could envisage a Labour hold. Nothing has happened since Monday to change my suggestion that Labour at better than evens is a value bet. I wrote that just after I had got as much as I could on Labour at 2-1.

Get the latest live prices from PB’s other sponsor – Bestbetting which has the fullest range of political prices available anyhere from a wide group of bookmakers.

Mike Smithson