Bookmaker US Election Disaster 

The 2016 US Presidential Election witnessed huge betting activity across the globe.  The obvious dislike between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton fuelled the intense run-up to the election and caught the imagination of millions of people around the world.

On the Sunday before the election took place, it was estimated that $130 million had been traded on who will become the next President of the United States.  This figure, is more than double the amount wagered on the 2012 US Election and with two days betting still to consider in the lead up to the announcement, the final figure would be even higher.

A Shock Winner

With the results announced today, it came as a shock to many, to see Donald Trump voted in by the American public, as their new President.  Not only did this come as a surprise to many onlookers around the world, it had disastrous consequences for betting firm, Paddy Power.

In October, the Irish online betting company made the decision to pay out over $1 million on Hilary Clinton becoming the new US President.

Lewis Davey, a spokesman for Paddy Power, said: “We’re in the business of making predictions and decided to put our neck on the line by paying out early on Hillary Clinton, but boy did we get it wrong.

“We’ve been well and truly thumped by Trump, with his victory leaving us with the biggest political pay-out in the company’s history and some very, very expensive egg on our faces.”

In addition to the money paid out on Clinton in October, Paddy Power had to pay out $4.5 million to punters who bet on Donald Trump to win the election, making it a very expensive two month for the company.

Political Betting on the Rise?

Despite losing a huge sum of money on the 2016 US Election, Paddy Power have already opened several markets surrounding Donald Trump and they are not the only ones.

William Hill have opened four different markets based around Donald Trump becoming President of the United States.  They offer 8/1 for him to build a wall covering the entire US-Mexican border, 4/6 for him to be the official Republican candidate in 2020 and 3/1 for Russia to be the country of his first state visit.

Has the US Presidential Election paved the wave for a continued interest in Political betting or was this just a one off, due to the publicity generated by Trump’s inclusion?