Though an official announcement of a UK General Election was only made yesterday, the betting markets have already started picking up, with £1.35m ($1.72m) wagered on Betfair Exchange’s General Election markets within 24 hours.
The current UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak held a press conference on Wednesday in which he confirmed that 4 July would be the date for a general election, though it was his opposition party that took an unsurprising lead in the betting markets early on.
On the first day of the election campaign proper, the Betfair Exchange markets suggested that the Labour Party was 1/5 to win a majority, or the equivalent of an 83% chance.
The Conservative Party, according to those markets, was 5/7 to experience seat losses of 200 or more.
Punters have reacted to the news in the last 24 hours on the Betfair Exchange markets with almost £500,000 placed on Labour to win the most seats and nearly £200,000 for there to be a Labour majority.
Betfair Spokesperson Sam Rosbottom said: "As both Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer head on the road for their election campaigns, punters have been putting their money where their mouths are, and a whopping £1.35m has been wagered on the Betfair Exchange UK general election markets in the last 24 hours.
"The majority of that has been in favour of the Labour party, with almost £500,000 wagered on them to win the most seats alone since yesterday morning.
"While Labour completely dominates the betting in terms of money, in the last 24 hours we actually took more bets on a no overall majority outcome, and the Conservatives to win most seats, suggesting that while Labour are at such short odds, punters are still speculative about the outcome."
In other company news, Betfair recently signed a deal to become the club sponsor of Brazilian football club Vasco da Gama.
