Political Betting – Best Sites to Bet on Politics

Political betting has gained popularity in recent years, as savvy bettors look to turn their current affairs knowledge into a profit. There are big edges to be had when betting on politics, and knowledge is power. If you keep your eye on the news/debates/press releases you can get some very good value if you’re ahead of the bookmakers or other betting exchange users. Here is our list of the best political betting sites, based on availability of markets and odds on offer:

What Type of Political Bets are There?

When political betting started out, usually only the major markets were covered like ‘Next President’ or ‘Next Prime Minister’. Nowadays however, every election and referendum is covered by a huge range of markets. The US Presidential Election betting markets typically get more attention than any others and when it comes to betting on the 2016 US Presidential Election you can bet on the winner of every party primary election, which candidate will be nominated by both sides, and of course the overall winner, as well as the winning margin and total number of electoral college votes.

In the UK, they love a good political scandal and as well as the ‘Next Prime Minister’ bets, you can bet on things like how long the current government will last and which leaders will still be in power after the next election. There will also be special markets set up on any referenda or other major political events that may occur.

Best Site to Bet on Politics

As well as the UK and US, if you shop around, you’ll find markets based on the elections of other European countries, as well as Canada, Australia and plenty of others around the time of the elections in those countries. So, if you’ve got some insider information about political unrest in North Africa, there’ll probably be a place on the internet where you an make some money out of it!

How to Win at Political Betting

As we said above, knowledge is power when it comes to political betting and if you get information before you think the general public has it that might lead to a change in the chance of a certain candidate doing well, then you need to act on that information fast, as the bookmakers and sportsbooks won’t be too far behind you.

Another key to political betting is research. In truth the bookmakers only have access to the same information as you, so if you study patterns well and keep an eye on local events then you’re in with a good shout. This is particularly useful when betting on local elections. If you’re betting on the US primaries and you have access to a UK bookmaker, you can gain a big edge by keeping a close eye on local news and TV in the particular state you’re focusing on, gauging voter sentiment from the news reports and seeing how it matches up with the prices that the bookmaker is offering you. In general, the further out of touch with the market that the betting site is, the better your opportunities to find value.

Another great market to play is the ‘In-Play’ betting during televised debates. If you think you have a good handle on how politician’s performances in these debates affect how voters feel about them then you can make money by trading on betting exchanges like Betfair during the debates.

A recent example of how important these debates can be was in the 2011 Irish Presidential election, where candidate Sean Gallagher, who was among the favourites to land the job, mentioned that he had received a donation in a ‘brown envelope’ to pass along. Shortly afterwards, his price sky-rocketed and his chance of winning the election was gone. Anyone watching the betting markets and ready to pounce had a great opportunity to lock up a profit. US Presidential hopeful Rick Perry suffered a similar fate recently, when he forgot his own manifesto during a live debate.