Paddy Power Payout on Obama in US Presidential Election Betting
The US Presidential elections may still be three weeks away, but the result has already been declared, some 3,456 miles away from Washignton DC. The nation of America is eagerly anticipating voting day on November 4th, but Barack Obama, has already been named as the next President of the United States of America, according to Irish Bookmaker, Paddy Power. The Dublin based firm believe that the Democrat candidate, Obama, has moved so far ahead of his Republican counterpart, John McCain, in the opinion polls that the result has become a foregone conclusion and will be paying out winnings to anybody who placed a bet on Obama to win the election race with them. Paddy Power stated that the decision to payout early has cost them over €1,000,000.
The latest news from across the Atlantic suggests that Obama is commanding 50 percentage points in popularity over John McCain who has 43 per centage points*. Just a few weeks ago, the betting on which candidate would become the next president was neck a neck but Obama has really impressed the US public during the recent live Presidential debates, to gain the advantage. Paddy Power are still offering odds on which man will replace George Bush in the Whitehouse with Obama the 1/9 favourite and McCain the 5/1 outsider of the two; but it will be those customers who placed their bets prior to Thursday October 16th who will be toasting 'Obama's premature victory'.
While it is looking likely that Obama will become the next US President, he will no doubt be ignoring the hype on both sides of the Atlantic and concentrating on the job in hand, equally, John McCain will have not given up the challenge as the we all look forward to November 4th.
*(source: Gallup Tracking poll)