Obama win a surprise for bookmaker Ladbrokes

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Obama’s win certainly surprised Britain’s Ladbrokes betting company. They had set the odds for the various Nobel candidates, and Obama was a long shot compared to favorites like Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Colombian senator Piedad Cordoba and Chinese dissident Hu Jia. So what was the pay-out on Obama’s Nobel win? We ask Robin Hutchinson, a spokesman for Ladbrokes.

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KATY CLARK: The announcement this morning that President Obama had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize surprised a lot of people.  Even those who try to make a living predicting such things like the folks at Britain’s Ladbrokes Betting Company.  They had set the odds for the various Nobel candidates.  Robin Hutchinson is a spokesman for Ladbrokes.  And Robin, what were the odds that President Obama would come out on top?

ROBIN HUTCHINSON: Well, we were a little bit blindsided by this one, shall we say.  Barack Obama was sort of mid table in the betting.  He was 25 to 1.  For the uninitiated, that means you have to bet so you win $25 for every dollar that you spend.  So we actually saw some money for him when we cut his price to 20 to 1, that we weren’t certainly expecting that’s for sure.

CLARK: How do you determine the odds?

HUTCHINSON: Well, it’s a very complicated one because obviously with the Nobel Committee they don’t release short list as some awarding panels do. So it’s a bit of a complicated one, but we’ve got guys behind the scenes here who are looking at these things and looking across the globe obviously to see who will be the runners and riders.  So we also wait for what we call the waited money, which is when obviously our customers can have a bet.  We can see where the money is going.  We can cut our odds accordingly.  So it’s a bit of a complicated one and we’re always betting a little bit blind when it comes to these things.

CLARK: Who did you have as a favorite?

HUTCHINSON: Well, we had actually Padet Cordova, the Colombian senator as the five to one favorite. Saw some good money for her early on and then the two Chinese dissidents in the list, Hugai [PH] and Wei Jing Shang [PH].  They both came in from 7 to 1 to 5 to 1.   So we were expecting a winner from one of those three, but in actual fact as we all know now it was Barack Obama.

CLARK: So you said you cut President Obama’s odds to 20 to 1.  So I would imagine Ladbrokes didn’t do too well today, did it?

HUTCHINSON: No, unfortunately not.  It wasn’t one of our better days.  We normally obviously take most of our money on horse racing and football and that sort of thing, but we’ve got a lot of customers in Scandinavia who did very well at this one. It’s obviously very big out there given the traditions of the prize, and a lot of people in Denmark and Sweden and Norway have got their beer money for the weekend, shall we say.

CLARK: Well, who is the biggest winner?  I mean, what was the biggest payout?  You said if it was 20 to 1 for every dollar you bet, you get $20.

HUTCHINSON: Yeah, we had a few people that got around about $500 and $1,000 and that sort of thing.  So you have to be careful.  I mean, let’s put it into perspective. This isn’t the Kentucky Derby or anything like this, you know. It’s a big event globally.  It’s not necessarily a massive event betting wise.

CLARK: Yeah, I’m wondering how popular betting on the Nobel Peace Prize is.  I mean, roughly how many wagers do you get?

HUTCHINSON: Yeah, we had about 1,000 this year, and I would think that around about a quarter or a third of them were on Barack Obama’s side. That kind of puts it into context really.

CLARK: Robin Hutchinson is a spokesman for Ladbrokes the British-based odds maker.  Robin, thanks for talking with us.

HUTCHINSON: Okay, all the best.

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