Guide to Current Political Betting Opportunities

Political betting is a popular niche in sports betting due to the excellent amount of coverage Politics enjoys in the news which helps our research. During the last twelve months we have enjoyed watching the US Presidential election which was fought by eventual winner Barack Obama and Senator John McCain. Whilst the eventual result was a clear victory for Obama it was a struggle right from the Primary elections between Obama and Hilary Clinton. The odds went back and forth and many political betting fans made some money along the way as it became clear the USA wanted Obama. The UK general elections are approaching fast and also the first election for the new post EU high commissioner. You can bet on them all at bwin.com. So where are our Political betting profits likely to come from?

Regarding the UK general election the Conservatives are out in front in the polls, although the Labour Party has been showing signs of a comeback recently. This is largely due to a highly unexpected surge of sympathy for Gordon Brown after a row started over a handwritten note sent to the mother of a fallen soldier. The Sun newspaper launched a vicious attack on him and even Conservatives, of whom The Sun now supports, said they had gone too far. At the time of writing the Conservatives are 1.07 to win the next general election. Labour are currently at odds of 7.00 and the Liberal Democrats at 67.00.

Gordon Brown mentioned yesterday in his Queens speech that he wants to set an agenda for the beginnings of a transfer of power to Afghanistan in 2010. It is a key political move as the war in Afghanistan continues to divide voters. The Conservatives have supported the sentiment behind the placement of troops in Afghanistan but would have used the issue of withdrawing as a manifesto pledge, which would have been popular with the public who are disillusioned with the almost daily reports of more soldiers lives lost.

Tellingly, however, there has been no media surge for David Cameron who has yet to convince the country he is the right man for the job. In 1997 Tony Blair won by a landslide after such a media endorsement. This suggests that at 7.00 this may be a value price for Labour to retain power for one more parliamentary term.

The EU high commissioners job (or Euro President) was tipped to go to former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Whilst he has not publicly announced his candidacy, using the ‘no smoke without fire’ rule you would assume if he was not interested he would have ruled himself out of the race some time ago. He can be backed at odds of 12.00 currently. The favourite is Belgium Herman Van Rompuy. He has odds of 2.00. David Miliband, the UK foreign secretary ruled himself out of the running due to family reasons but I feel he may have his sights on the Labour leadership if Brown does suffer defeat in the next election.

Whether Europe would want to elect Blair when there are still questions over his Iraq involvement and the fact Britain did not elect to use the standard European currency the Euro is open to debate. Preferable candidates may be people like Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia currently at odds of 6.00 or Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg priced at 6.00 also. These countries are more neutral and not viewed with cynicism as Britain is on many issues, not least their relationship with the USA.

To get the best value of your political bets read the newspapers carefully as positioning with allies especially in the EU election will be crucial and clues will emerge on the candidate many will recommend for the post closer to the time of the election. UK newspapers also report daily on General election news and the issues surrounding it.

By Malcolm Clarke