Who won the debate? Odds makers say Barak Obama

Who won the debate? Odds makers say Barak Obama Who won the debate is a question often asked by people, following a presidential debate, such as the one on Tuesday between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. Usually a question of who won the debate is extremely hard to answer, but not this time around - for the first time ever we have a clear winner, according to the odds makers.

The online sportsbook BodogLife is one of the many who offer presidential odds on this year's Elections and we have followed those odds throughout the year to bring you the latest updates. Before last night's presidential debate, pundits were confident in one thing - it was a must-win debate for GOP candidate John McCain. And when we checked the odds offered on the two candidates this morning, we saw that in the odds makers eyes (and in the eyes of many commentators on major mainstream media networks) John McCain failed to deliver.

To help illustrate the point, let's first look at the odds offered on the November Elections before the debate. Prior to the two candidates squaring off in Tennessee, Barack Obama was slight favorite to win the Elections with odds -190, while John McCain was underdog with the sportsbooks, holding odds +155 on victory. Following the last night's presidential debate, the betting firm cut the odds on Barack Obama from -190 all the way to -340 and John McCain plummeted from +155 to +260! For those of you who don't understand how betting odds work, let's put these odds in money prospective. The -190 odds on Barack Obama meant that bettors had to risk $190 to win just $100, the new odds mean that the bettors now have to risk $340 to win just $100. This is by far the biggest percentage move in presidential odds we have seen all year, a clear indicator that people believe that Barack Obama won the debate last night!

Published on 10/08/2008