Following the killing of Osama Bin-Laden, the US President is more likely to be re-elected next year, which has affected the wagers offered by bookmakers
Prior to the killing of the world’s terrorist number one last Sunday, the popularity of the American president was relatively low, according to multiple surveys carried out throughout the United States. Since then the situation started changing and according to the very same surveys his popularity is now on the rise.
Such shift in public favour might not mean much politically, especially a year and a half before the presidential elections, but land-based as well as online bookmakers find it major enough in order to change their wagers accordingly. This way, the higher is the percentage of Obama’s popularity, the lower are wagers offered by bookies.
Before Sunday the average odds of Barack Obama’s re-election in 2012 stood at -175 on US odds scale (1.57 decimal), while as of today they have dropped down to -250, which translates to the decimal odds system as 1.40. Chances of him winning the elections went from 58-60 per cent before the kill up to over 70% after it.
Presidential elections were not the only gambling market affected by Bin-Laden’s death. The man himself was a centre of his own market, which accepted wagers on dates when he would be captured or killed. This market saw a drastic rise of 98% for a very short period of time, just about when the official announcement was made, and then died, together with Osama himself.
