Political betting punters to splurge record £100m on general election

UK punters are set to spend a staggering £100m on the forthcoming general election, according to Ladbrokes.

The bookmaker expects the May vote to be the biggest ever betting election and "probably" garner up to three times as much as 2010's takings across the market.

"Based on trends so far and comparing it to 2010, we are forecasting that there will be more than £100m ($153m, €137m) worth of bets in the UK on this general election," Matthew Shaddick, head of political betting at Ladbrokes, told IBTimes UK.

"We are pretty sure it's going to be the biggest betting election, probably two or three times as big as we saw in 2010."

The betting expert also revealed that his firm estimates that South Thanet, the hotly contested Kent seat Nigel Farage and Al Murray's The Pub Landlord are running for, will be the largest betting constituency in Britain.

"We are forecasting that this seat is going to be the biggest constituency in the country for betting interests this year, based on Farage being very newsworthy, Murray has been chucked into the mix and also the fact that either Labour or the Tories can be realistic challengers here," Shaddick explained.

The Ladbrokes representative spoke at Ukip's spring conference in Margate and after a poll from Survation put Farage on to win the Thanet seat.

The survey, which questioned more than 1,000 voters in the constituency, gave the Ukip leader an 11% lead over Labour (38.6% vs 27.6%) and put the Tories on 26.6%.

Ladbrokes have put Farage favourite in the seat on 1/3, with the Tories on 3/1, Labour on 8/1 and the Liberal Democrats on 100/1.