Gordon Brown announced today that he would be going to the country but the initial exit polls from the market researchers at Betfair don't hold out to much chance of a Labour victory.
The Conservatives are odds-on favourites at 8-13 with Betfair punters to win a majority at the upcoming General Election after Gordon Brown asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament today.
A Hung Parliament is now 2-1, whilst Labour look a long-shot for a majority, for which they are currently a 15-1 chance.The race narrowed in the wake of Alistair Darling’s budget to a point where Labour were 3-1 to win the most seats, but if the betting is anything to go by David Cameron’s party has regained the initiative and are now 1-5 to be the biggest party in the Commons.
Betfair are expecting the volume of political bets to rise by four times today as customers not already interested in the betting markets decide to have a wager now the race is officially underway.
Betfair spokesman Mike Robb said: “We have been staggered by the amount of interest in betting on this election. Now that the starting gun has been formally fired we expect that interest to increase even more sharply, with the numbers of bets quadrupling today versus yesterday.
“As it stands in the betting, the Labour Party have it all to do in order to prevent the Conservatives winning a majority, though a Hung Parliament is a definite possibility at 2-1.”
At puntinplay we think it may be a case of getting on early. As the campaign progresses the advertising boys working for the Tories will score more points attacking Brown than their counterparts in the Labour pary who have identified the Shadow Chancellor as the point of weakness.
The debates will add a new twist to the process but the Tories have it all to lose and their leader "Davy boy" is a far more polished performer than the dour Brown. In two weeks time to 8/13 may look like a great offer.
