US Elections 2020: UK gambler bets one million pound on Joe Biden as next US president

A United Kingdom gambler has placed a £1 million bet on the Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden to be the next US president on the Betfair Exchange. As per CNN reports, the unidentified bettor placed the bet on October 29 and would win a £540,000 profit on top of getting the original £1 million wager returned if Biden wins the presidential vote.

Due to a 2018 US Supreme Court ruling, gamblers in the United States are not allowed to place legal wagers on the election, even as legal sports betting is popular in the country. Thus, the UK's legal betting market is soaring as waging on elections in the country is legal. As per reports, the US election is set to be the most-bet-upon event in history.

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£1 million wager is the third-largest bet in Betfair's history

The £1 million wager is reported to be the third-largest bet in Betfair's history. The bets are flowing into Betfair at a record pace, with £274 million having been recorded by Monday morning i.e. a day before the US elections. It takes several days for a bet to appear in the data, hence the October 29 bet has shown up only now.

As Betfair will allow gamblers to keep wagering until a winner is declared, there could be days more staggering bets. The company is estimating total US presidential election wagers on its exchange will top £400 million, or twice of what was wagered in 2016. The winning bet will be who becomes the next president, not who wins the popular vote, the company said.

According to Oddsmakers, Biden has 65 percent chances of winning the presidential election while Trump has 35 percent chances. 

Meanwhile, nearly 98 million people are already reported to have voted through mail-in ballots or early in-person voting. This year’s US presidential election will be the first in history in which more people voted ahead of the election day than on it. With a massive surge in mail-voting, it is likely that the US citizens won’t know which candidate won many states, including key battlegrounds, on election night. 

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