Hot air specialists Cameron, Brown and Clegg take Westminster

General Election Betting / Maxliu / 04 May 2010 / Leave a Comment

The hot-air merchants march away from Westminster

"The giant bet-o-meter is being flown at Westminster and other London locations to show how the nation is betting in the run up to polling day. It's been proven that Betfair is the most accurate reflection of political outcomes as people put their money on what they think will happen, irrespective of who they will vote for."

Betfair launches the world's biggest swing-o-meter in eye-catching fashion

Today sees the launch of the world's biggest swing-o-meter, three 25ft inflatable heads of David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg, which are being flown at different heights to represent who is ahead in the political betting stakes.

According to Betfair, the UK's largest online betting company, the balloons could be inflated with the hot air spoken by the three main candidates in the televised leader debates alone. Collectively Cameron, Brown and Clegg exhaled over 2,290 litres of hot air enough to fill 763 party balloons. Cameron spoke the most hot air exhaling 780 litres with Brown closely behind with 770 litres. Clegg, perhaps more conscious of his environmental impact, was in third place with 740 litres.

The giant bet-o-meter is being flown at Westminster and other London locations to show how the nation is betting in the run up to polling day. It's been proven that Betfair is the most accurate reflection of political outcomes as people put their money on what they think will happen, irrespective of who they will vote for.

A hung parliament is narrow favourite with Betfair punters, currently [1.96] (a 52 per change chance). The chances of Cameron being next Prime Minister rallied after the final TV debate last week, with the Tory leader now [2.12] (a 47 per cent chance) to win a majority. Neither Labour [55.0] nor the Lib Dems ([160.0]) have any chance of gaining a majority, according to the betting.

Mike Robb of Betfair comments: "There's been a lot of hot air spoken in the run up to the election, with many unexpected twists and turns, but the political dust is beginning to settle and the betting shows that while David Cameron is ahead of both Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg, a hung parliament is currently floating above the crowd as the most likely outcome of Thursday's election."