A gambler in the United Kingdom has staked a £1 million, or $1.29 million or N600million bet on Joe Biden to be the next president in the United States.
The bet was placed on the Betfair Exchange, the world’s largest online betting exchange, where gamblers find other gamblers who match their wagers.
The identity of the bettor, who placed the wager on October 29, is not known.
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He would win a £540,000 ($696,170) profit on top of getting the original £1 million wager returned.
Oddsmakers put Biden’s chance of winning at 65%, and Trump’s chances at 35%.
That’s slightly better odds for Trump than the 2-to-1 odds last week. And it’s much better than the 10% chance of Trump winning according to FiveThirtyEight.
CNN reports that the £1 million wager is tied for the third-largest bet in Betfair’s history.
It is smaller than the £1.1 million bet on tennis player Rafael Nadal in the 2010 French Open, and slightly more than £1 million bet on Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his 2017 match against Conor McGregor.
The bets are flowing into Betfair at a record pace, with £274 million, or $353 million, having been recorded by Monday morning.
And it takes several days for a bet that has been made to show up in the data, which is why the October 29 bet has only now become known.
So the total wagering on the vote is likely well above that level.
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Since Betfair will allow bettors to keep wagering until a winner is declared, there could be days more betting, if not more, as vote counting goes on.
Betfair is estimating total US presidential election wagers on its exchange will top £400 million, or twice what was wagered in 2016.
Read more on CNN
