The 2020 U.S. election has quickly become the largest single betting event in history, with more than $400 million betting on which presidential candidate will win, bookmakers say.
So far, a whopping $420 million has been bet on Betfair Exchange while the world waits to see who will be the next US president, the bookmaker told Washington Newsday.
In the last 24 hours alone, more than $52 million has been bet on the next president’s market, with $26 million on Joe Biden and $25 million on Donald Trump.
Although Trump has made up the majority of bets in the market so far, most of the money has been placed on Joe Biden.
“The big money comes to Biden because people have more confidence in the state of the market at the end of an election and the big hitters come in,” said professional political gambler and Betfair election expert Paul Krishnamurty.
OddsChecker, which collects betting data from dozens of bookmakers, made similar observations.
“In the last four hours, 71 percent of the money bet on the 2020 U.S. election was placed on Donald Trump,” said OddsChecker marketing director Sam Eaton.
“Although he accounted for 63 percent of the bets placed in October, Donald Trump accounted for only 39 percent of the money actually bet on the election. In fact, the top five bets placed through OddsChecker in October were all on the victory of Joe Biden.
Joe Biden is considered the bookmakers’ clear favorite for the 2020 election.
Since May, the Democratic candidate has been the betting favorite for victory in the historic election.
Political betting is allowed in the UK but banned in the US, and with election day just around the corner, Biden leads the polls with an average implicit probability of 61 percent of winning before Trump, according to the leading British bookmakers.
On Monday, an unnamed individual placed a £1 million ($1.29 million) bet on Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 US presidential election.
The bet, which was placed with a British bookmaker over the weekend, will bring in a win of $1,987,502 if the Democrats win. According to Betfair, it is the biggest political bet ever.
This morning Washington Newsday reported how bookmakers believe Donald Trump’s chances of winning a second round of the presidential election have “massively improved” in the last 24 hours before election day.
The Republican received a significant late boost overnight, improving from an average implied 35 percent probability to a 40 percent chance.
“Donald Trump’s chances have improved massively in the last 24 hours,” said a Betfair spokesperson.
Yesterday, with only a day left before the polls open, the bookmaker gave democratic rival Joe Biden an implicit 65 percent chance of winning, ahead of Trump’s 35 percent chance.
“It’s finally election day in the US, and Donald Trump’s chances of beating Joe Biden have received a late boost as his odds have improved from 15/8 (35 percent chance) to 6/4 (40 percent) overnight,” Betfair spokesman Sam Rosbottom said.
