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Category: Betting Call

Who will fill these seats?

Who will fill these seats?

Where’s the value in the Senatorial betting markets? With most eyes on the Presidential election, and much of the value squeezed out of the White House political betting markets, it is easy to forget the glut of interesting Congressional and Gubernatorial races that offer to the political punter the opportunity to find a little extra value. House races are strange beasts, and the sheer number of races (435, of which maybe 150 are truly competitive) means that betting on individual…

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Is it worth a punt on the Tories getting their poll lead back?

Is it worth a punt on the Tories getting their poll lead back?

Does a 16%-20% margin seem like a value bet? The Irish bookmaker PaddyPower has put up a range of markets linked to David Cameron’s big conference speech tomorrow – the most interesting being the one featured in the panel above – what polling lead will the Tories have in the first post-big speech survey? After some consultation with me this will be settled on the basis of the party shares in the first YouGov poll where the fieldwork starts after…

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Are UK markets behind on the White House Race?

Are UK markets behind on the White House Race?

Is now the time to be betting against Barack? Several people on the site have been making the point in the past couple of days that Betfair and other UK betting firms are trailing behind the US-focussed markets on the McCain-Obama battle. Quite simply, given recent polling, this is much tighter than the betting prices here might suggest. Thus the automated telephone pollster, Rasmussen, is reporting today that its tracking poll now has McCain ahead by one point and across…

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Are these the people punters should thank – or blame?

Are these the people punters should thank – or blame?

Was it their “17% Labour margin” that made the SNP prices attractive? Yet again an election has shown the pollsters up and reinforced my default position when assessing all voting intention surveys – “always assume that Labour is being overstated“. The whole atmosphere in the lead up to yesterday’s Glasgow East by election was affected by the Scottish Progressive Opinion survey that had Labour 17% ahead. I was highly sceptical about their methods right from the start and it was…

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Will this help you with your by election betting?

Will this help you with your by election betting?

How the PB community split at 2.15 am I’m not normally a great fan of instant online quickie polls like the one we did yesterday on people’s forecasts for today’s Glasgow East by-election. Those who take part are self-selecting and the technical savvy could vote more than once. Yet the result that’s come out totally reflects my own view of what will happen today. This is a 50-50 shot even though the betting markets make Labour the 0.31/1 odds-on favourite….

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What if Labour’s Henley vote drops to these levels?

What if Labour’s Henley vote drops to these levels?

Will a lost deposit be what next Thursday is remembered for? At the PB party last night I was repeatedly asked about Ladbrokes’s market on whether Labour will lose its deposit in the Henley by election next Thursday. The price has now tightened to 8/13 and even at that level I think it is a good bet. Over the years the Labour has been squeezed dramatically in by-elections that have been seen as a straight Conservative-Lib Dem fight. In 1993,…

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My General Election call: A Conservative majority

My General Election call: A Conservative majority

Why C&N gives me the confidence to come off the fence In assessing the significance of the Crewe and Nantwich result for the next general election ask yourself this – when was the last time that the Tories took a seat off Labour in a by-election and then failed to win the subsequent general election? The answer is Leyton in January 1965 which was held in the unique circumstances of a vacancy being created to provide a Commons seat for…

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Spread markets point to a Tory majority of 40

Spread markets point to a Tory majority of 40

A 24 seat shift to Cameron’s party in just ten days The spread firm, SportingIndex, has just put up its new general election commons seats spreads following the YouGov poll overnight suggesting that Labour are on just 23% – a massive 26% behind. When we last looked at this, a week last Tuesday and two days before polling, I posed the question – “Will punters believe in a Tory majority after Thursday?”. Well they have and the Tory spread has…

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