In the UK and Ireland, where betting on elections is legal, folks are rushing to get their bets down on Donald Trump:
Donald Trump won 91 per cent of bets on who will win the presidential election over at the start of the week in another indicator of his growing popularity. The Republican candidate’s odds at becoming president improved from 5/1 last week to 9/4 on Wednesday, according to Irish bookmaker Paddy Power.
Only nine per cent of bets placed on the election on Monday and Tuesday in the UK and Ireland, where election betting is legal unlike in the US, cast Hillary Clinton as the winner. Only last week the betting company was so sure she would win that it paid out more than $1 million on her winning.
It is the latest blow to her once invincible campaign and comes after the FBI’s revival of its probe into her use of emails while she was Secretary of State.
Proves nothing, of course. The level of knowledge in the UK and my own beloved Ireland of the American political system is next to nil. Still, it’s fun to see how quickly sentiment can turn, especially on as sure a thing as Hillary Clinton was just a few days ago.
Just last week Clinton’s odds with the bookmaker were so strong (2/11), they began paying out on bets naming her as the president. It has forked out more than $1 million including $60,000 on a single bet and now faces double payment in the event of a Trump victory.
At the time she had an 85 per cent chance of winning over Trump’s 18 per cent. She is still more likely to win with a 73 per cent chance based on previous betting. Clinton has also lost momentum in tracking polls, standing neck-and-neck with Trump on Wednesday with less than a week until the election.
At this point, we could all do with a refreshing pint at the nearest pub.
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