UK general election: Political betting expert explains latest odds in video as £12.5M wagered so far

With just less than a month to go until the UK General Election on July 4, £12.5M has been wagered on the outcomes of the polls. In 2019, £50M was staked on the UK General Election and the 2020 US election became the single biggest betting event of all time with £1.7B wagered.

Sam Rosbottom, political betting expert at Betfair, believes political betting is becoming more popular, with people wanting to have their say on who they think will win.

How much can we rely on odds to predict the outcome of future events?

With Betfair’s Betting Exchange, odds are generated based on who's betting on what. This means massive margins for change as pre-election events happen.

Sam says in certain circumstances punters can be quick to flip the odds, however, as things stand, they are heavily favouring a labour majority.

What are the latest UK general election betting odds?

Sam says Labour are currently dominating the market for most seats, as short as 1/33 to win, which is roughly around a 97% chance.

Around £3.6M has been staked on the overall majority market, with 72% of that money in favour of Sir Keir Starmer’s party. Labour are the overwhelming favourites to win an overall majority at 1/11 which gives them about a 92% chance.

Another market is how many seats the Conservatives will lose at the election. Around 201 or more seat losses is the overwhelming favourite at short odds of 1/3.