Punters dropping big bucks on Coalition win after Labor’s horror week
The Coalition is now the favourite to win the upcoming election after Labor leader Anthony Albanese suffered a week which campaign insiders have reportedly called a “write-off”.
Federal Election
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The Coalition is now the favourite to win the upcoming election with gambling house SportBet after Labor leader Anthony Albanese suffered a week which campaign insiders have reportedly called a “write-off”.
According to Sportsbet, since the start of the campaign bets on Scott Morrison’s re-election have come in from $3.05 to favourites on $1.85, with some customers already laying down as much as $10,000 or $20,000 on the outcome.
Meanwile, Labor started as favourites on $1.50 and have now stretched out to $1.90.
“The bigger punters don’t usually come in until closer to the date,” said a spokesman for Sportsbet, who also noted that a voter drift away from Labor in one major poll published overnight Sunday caused a further surge of interest in the Coalition.
Some 77 per cent of money now being put down on next month’s federal election is coming in for a Coalition win, the spokesman said.
Punters have also begun to put money on the possibility of a hung parliament, with odds coming in from $3.75 to $2.50.
However in what should be consoling news for Labor supporters, polls don’t always get it right.
In 2019, odds of a Labor victory had come in to as short as $1.13 before the betting agency paid out two days early on a Shorten win, only to have Scott Morrison stage a miracle comeback.
In 2016, a late surge of money for the Coalition – which would retain a one-seat majority in the House of Representatives after a long and lacklustre campaign led by Malcolm Turnbull – brought the odds of re-election in to just $1.07.
Shortly before polling day one customer dropped $250,000 on the Coalition to win at $1.12, with the now-defunct Luxbet agency, believed to be one of the largest bets ever made on an election.
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