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Scottish independence referendum: man bets £400,000 on no
vote |
11/06/2014 |
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Severin
Carrell, |
Surrey punter in
line for £100,000 profit from what bookmakers describe as 'biggest
political bet ever struck'
A
man from Surrey has gambled £400,000 on Scotland voting no in the
independence referendum, in one of the largest political bets ever placed.
Bookmakers William Hill said the customer presented a banker's draft
for £400,000 at a branch in south-west London at odds of 1/4 for a no
vote, potentially earning a profit of £100,000.
William Hill, which has already had a
£200,000 bet placed on a no vote, said it had now cut its odds against a
yes vote to 1/5 and slightly lengthened the odds of a yes vote from 11/4 to
10/3.
The bet came as an opinion poll carried out by TNS suggested that
English support for Scottish independence has declined, as more English voters
believed a yes vote would harm the UK. Backing for a yes vote has declined to
18% from 22%, while backing for a no vote has grown by eight points to 61%.
The referendum, which is being staged on 18 September, has already been
described by bookmakers as one of the biggest political betting events outside
a general election and a US presidential race.
Graham Sharpe, a spokesman for the bookmakers,
said: "As far as we can ascertain, this is the biggest political bet ever
struck.
"The previous record was a £200,000 bet also struck on a
no vote in the Scottish referendum earlier in the campaign, and the same amount
was gambled by a customer who backed David Cameron to become Tory leader.
"We are now well on the way to turning over £1m on the outcome of
the Scottish referendum, which is exceeding our expectations."
He said
the number of bets taken by William Hill on the referendum was split 55% in
favour of a no vote and 45% for yes broadly equivalent to the results of
some recent polls.
The £400,000 punt has been matched by a very
similar bet placed on the Australian federal election in September 2013, when
an Australian gambler placed A$750,000 (£419,000) on the coalition led by
Tony Abbott winning last year's federal election. .
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