Odds on Elections: Odds to win the Presidential Election 2012

Odds on Elections: Odds to win the Presidential Election 2012 Today is the last day of the Election 2012 campaigns, time to take another close look at the odds on President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Judging by all the latest polls related to the Presidential candidates - it's dead heat between Obama and Romney, but not so much so with the odds makers.

Taking a look back to pre-hurricane odds, both online sportsbooks you can see below had incumbent Barack Obama leading with some of the best odds we have seen on any recent Elections, no less the last two Presidential Elections. At Bovada Barack Obama was listed with -500 odds to win the 2012 Election. To put this in perspective for the readers who are not into sports betting - the -500 odds on Obama staying in office for another 4-year term meant that a bettor must wager $5 to win just $1! Compare this with the odds on Mitt Romney about two weeks ago, when the Republican candidate for President was holding odds of +350, meaning people who bet $5 on Romney would get $17.50. Clearly a stark contrast between the two Presidential hopefuls, in the eyes of the odds makers, of course. But keep in mind that in the last two Presidential Elections we'd monitored the odds on - the betting sites have always been correct in predicting the winner.

Forward a few weeks later and today the odds on the Election have certainly changed, but shockingly - not by much. As you can see from the table below, Democrats with President Barack Obama are still in the lead with short odds to win the November Elections, while Mitt Romney is the ultimate underdog with his long odds on bringing back the Republican Party in the White House. Here are the latest odds to win the November 2012 Presidential Election:

	Bovada	Bookmaker
Odds on Barack Obama to win	-375	-375
Odds on Mitt Romney to win	+285	+315

To explain these odds with examples, once again, the -375 odds on Obama to win the 2012 Election means that bettors must wager $3.75 to win $1 back, while the +285 on Romney means that those who wagered just $1 on the Republicans to win the Presidential Election in November would get back $2.85 in profit, more than double the money. It is also evident, however, that when comparing the odds on the next President from just a few weeks ago - the Republicans are certainly improving, the question is would the odds improve enough by Election Day or not. Stay with us if you are interested in the betting odds on the 2012 Election.

Published on 11/05/2012