The 2016 US presidential race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton turned out to be one of the most dramatic election campaigns in history, leaving the entire world in turmoil once the unexpected results were announced.
The election was very dramatic from the beginning and ended in a stunning win of the controversial billionaire sending shockwaves not only across America, but also some 3,000 miles away across the Atlantic Ocean, straight to the offices of the UK bookmakers who were both astonished by the unexpected result and heavily disadvantaged by it. What was one of the biggest and record breaking betting events also turned out to be biggest disappointment for punters, who did not expect such swift change in odds.
Donald Trump was an underdog all throughout the campaign, but in the evening hours of November 8, the odds started shifting swiftly and suddenly, and before midnight he was a favorite for the first time. Soon, Hillary's odds dropped to a low of 2/11, which was a hard blow to take for Paddy Power Sportsbook. Not long before, on October 20th, the Irish bookmaker put it's neck on the line boldly paying out over $1 million presidential bets on Clinton's victory early. The astonishing and market-defying end result is a $4.5 million loss for Paddy Power.
Paddy Power spokesperson Féilim Mac An Iomaire commented on the devastating loss on the company's blog: "We're in the business of making predictions and decided to put our neck on the line by paying out early on Hillary Clinton, but, boy, did we get it wrong," said this morning. "We've been well and truly thumped by Trump with his victory leaving us with the biggest political payout in the company’s history and some very, very expensive egg on our faces."
The situation after the announcement of the president-elect was not much different at the headquarters of William Hill Sportsbook & Racebook - they too have suffered a six-figure loss after taking over £5 million in bets and the majority of punters going for Trump.
"The good news is that betting on politics is booming like never before," said William Hill's Graham Sharpe. "The bad news is that we seem to have some very shrewd customers betting on it and a six-figure loss on this market can now be added to losing outcomes on the recent EU Referendum, the last General Election and the Labour leadership campaign."
Betfair spokesperson Barry Orr had this to say about the outcome: "The past 18 months have seen some extraordinary things happen in the world of politics and this morning's Presidential Election was certainly no different. Initially this was attributed to bettors being happy to back an outsider because Brexit was so fresh in their minds," he said. "However, it appears that the opposite was true; the market simply could not accept that the status quo could be wrong again."
John Smith
7 years ago
Well, I can't say I'm very sorry to hear that sportsbooks lost money they took on a bet. That's why we call it " a game", or "a gamble". Presidential election makes no difference, it was a gamble. For me, the general surprise is how everybody is suprised by this result. Congratulations to anyone who bet and won. I see...
Well, I can't say I'm very sorry to hear that sportsbooks lost money they took on a bet. That's why we call it " a game", or "a gamble". Presidential election makes no difference, it was a gamble. For me, the general surprise is how everybody is suprised by this result. Congratulations to anyone who bet and won. I see that kind of people as the ones that could see clearly what the media is serving to them.I don't think they all even wanted for mr. Trump to win the elections. To me personaly, the survey before the elections was a bit too much on the democratic side. However, in the great land of America, there is a lot of factors that show the things are "not so great" at all, as in the rest of this sad world. Maybe, I'm just saying maybe, this is going to be the start of something new, something different. Maybe something is going to change, and I don't think change like in a worse way. The best case scenario would be if mr. Trump surprise us all, and make a lemonade of the lemons Obama s leaving in the fruit basket at the White house! I wish that could happen, for sake of all.
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pmutts
7 years ago
Well, Hillary actually did win the popular vote by about 200,000 votes but the popular vote does not determine the winner in our democracy. The campaign Trump ran was an embarrasment to this country. His nasty and hateful rhetoric and complete lack of qualifications and experience made no difference. In my opinion, Hillary...
Well, Hillary actually did win the popular vote by about 200,000 votes but the popular vote does not determine the winner in our democracy. The campaign Trump ran was an embarrasment to this country. His nasty and hateful rhetoric and complete lack of qualifications and experience made no difference. In my opinion, Hillary deserved to win not Trump. Now I can only hope that we will all see Trump "Make our country great again." Wait, we already are great--that never changed. Hillary did not deserve to lose but the Europeon book makers most definitely did. Congratulations to anyone who bet the long shot and won. In hindsight, how could we have not seen it coming. The signs were there all along the way throughout the primary--and yes even going into the election.
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aymenpronet
7 years ago
ALL the world misplaced election expectations. But I feel very happy when I hear that sportsbooks lost money.. I want usually they lost to feel like me. But unfortunately I'm sure that these casinos will refund their losses from our money and unfortnately we are not able to stop gambling..Until we will win jackpot, our...
ALL the world misplaced election expectations. But I feel very happy when I hear that sportsbooks lost money.. I want usually they lost to feel like me. But unfortunately I'm sure that these casinos will refund their losses from our money and unfortnately we are not able to stop gambling..Until we will win jackpot, our money goes to these casinos.
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Feelin froggy
7 years ago
They took a gamble and lost big time. Now they know how we feel! Very stupid move.
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zuga
7 years ago
hehehe speaking of an upset.... In addition quite stupid move by Paddy Power... they deserved to lose that money.
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