At 2am BST, we will see the first Presidential Debate, it is scheduled to last for 90 minutes.

In the UK, the following channels are showing the debate live.

• BBC News
• Sky News
• CNN
• CNBC
• Fox News

UK viewers will also be able to watch a live stream of the debate from The BBC News Channel here.

This is the first of the debates, the format of this and subsequent debates can be found here

Going into the debate, all the momentum seems to be with Barack Obama, as evidenced by the post convention polling still showing an Obama lead, though there has been some promising polling in Florida for Romney, though he still trails Obama there.

Following on from Mitt Romney’s recent gaffes, even the Prime Minister of America’s traditionally closest ally has criticised Mitt Romney.

Both candidates should remember the old maxim of success equals performance minus anticipation.

The anticipation is that Obama will do better than Romney in the debates.

Were Obama to do worse than expectations and Romney to do better than expectations, then it could give belief to team Romney for the rest of the campaign.

Romney has already been involved in several debates earlier on this year during the Republican Nomination campaign, that may well aid him tonight.

Occasionally there is an October surprise, I wonder if the events in Libya. Syria and Iran could be the October surprise, especially with recent comments by The Israeli Prime Minister and confirmation on an informal alliance between the Iranians and Syrians.

Barack Obama will be well aware of how a predecessor of his, had his campaign for re-election damaged by events in Iran.

The Telegraph have a round up of some of the more memorable moments from past debates.

At the time of writing, 00:25, the odds at Betfair (before commission) for Obama are 1.23 and Romney are 4.80.

It will be interesting how these prices changes during next few hours.

Ladbrokes have a market up on the buzzwords used in the debate, if you haven’t bet, do so, as this market will probably be pulled before the debate starts.

If you think this race is already over, Ladbrokes have a couple of markets up on who will win the 2016 Election and whom will be the Democratic Nominee. I’m backing Hillary Clinton.

TSE