US Election Was Overwhelmingly One Sided For Gamers

UK punters are likely to gamble on almost anything.  The most recent popular choice was putting money on the outcome of the US election.  Despite the odds stacked in Romney’s favour by bookmaker William Hill, gamers overwhelmingly chose to put their money and their support down on President Obama.  William Hill said that due to the high volume of money down on Obama, a win for the incumbent would be a heavy loss for the bookmaker.

Graham Sharpe, one of the spokesman for William Hill, says over £1 million was placed on the electoral outcome through their services, with a total £10 million taken in by bookmakers across the country.  Sharpe says these are the highest amounts they have ever seen placed on a US election, which he credits to the rising popularity in online gambling.

Sharpe says in the closing days of the election, two out of every three bets were placed on Obama getting reelected.  Due to the overwhelming amounts on the popular President, William Hill shifted the odds around to provide a better payoff if Romney was elected.  However, gamers were not impressed with the Republican and chose to stick with Obama regardless of how much they could get out of him.

Sharpe says Obama has long been favoured by UK players to win the election, and really pulled ahead in the final week of the campaign due to his handling of the destruction from Hurricane Sandy.  He also noted the difference between polls in the US, and how gamers saw the odds of the election outcome.  He said that pundits were predicting a close race, but gamers were predicting an easy landslide for the President.