Bookies rocked by 'biggest political gamble ever'

Bookies were left licking their wounds at the weekend after Jeremy Corbyn landed the “biggest political gamble ever” by being elected leader of the UK Labour Party.

Corbyn, who had been priced up as a 200/1 outsider when the market opened in June, had been backed in to as short as 1/33 on Saturday when he swept to victory with almost 60% of the vote.

The result left bookmakers with a multi-million pound pay out with Ladbrokes this morning telling eGaming Review that Corbyn’s landslide victory had seen it return £250,000 to punters.

Meanwhile, William Hill was also hit for a six-figure sum with the operator’s spokesperson Graham Sharpe describing the major gamble as “unprecedented”.

“I am unaware of any betting market, let alone a political one, in which a contender has gone from 200/1 odds to 1/20 odds,” Sharpe said.

“The gamble has cost William Hill alone a six-figure sum, and with up to a million pounds gambled industry-wide it will be the biggest political betting pay out ever,” he added.

Despite the Corbyn pay out, Ladbrokes PR officer Alex Donohue remained upbeat and pointed to rising turnover and a busy political year in 2016, which contains an EU referendum and a US Presidential election, as reasons for optimism.

“It’s a very encouraging sign that the big political stories – outside of major election dates – stimulate such demand,” Donohue said. “We are now hoping that interest levels remain high building up to the blockbuster year we have to look forward to from January,” he added.

Political betting has been on the rise in recent years with more than £20m estimated to have been staked on this year’s UK General Election.

The offer of political betting markets can often translate into valuable column inches for operators and Ladbrokes gained a number of media mentions at the weekend by handing out Corbyn-style hats to those that attended the announcement of the result.