NOV 8, 2008

Punters To Get Their Obama Millions Now!

The country's leading election bookmaker Centrebet will today begin paying out millions of dollars in winnings to punters who backed US presidential-elect Barack Obama to win the long race to the White House!

Centrebet media chief and political analyst Neil Evans said it was the "right thing to do" despite long-running conditions of election betting that punters don't get paid until the inauguration, or swearing in, of the successful candidate!

"Obviously, the political system and betting landscape for the presidential race is a lot different to a major election book in Australia!" Evans said.

"Here, we pay out on the party that provides the Prime Minister or Premier. So you either back Labor or Liberal, and two days after the election is claimed, the swearing-in takes place, and everyone gets paid. The US presidential book was an individual candidates list that had as many as 40 runners right from the outset last year! You back the candidate firstly to secure their party's nomination (which took around a year to run), then of course a final head-to-head battle at the ballot box to win the White House. People were always effectively backing the individual, not the party, and that is why we've made this quick decision!"

"As well, the official presidential inauguration is 11 weeks after the victory is claimed and that is way too long for punters to wait. We took nearly 8000 individual bets, amounting to around $2 million, on the US presidential race, and of course, thousands of clients of all shapes and sizes, were on the Democratic victor Barack Obama! After all that time, they deserve an early Christmas present - and here it is!"

Evans said a decision had been made to break with traditional election rules to pay out now, despite all this "sad talk" that Obama would continue to be under personal threat.

Obama closed a massively backed $1.06 favourite with Centrebet to win the White House, with the Republican John McCain closing a long $8.70 outsider!

Centrebet was the only bookmaker to field on all 50 American States, plus a series of break-out markets. Nearly $3 million in election betting in in the system at the moment, including nearly $400,000.00 in the NZ election book as Kiwis go to the polls today. National Opposition leader John Key closed a heavily-backed $1.10 favourite to end Labour leader Helen Clark's era. She finished a $7.00 outsider!

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