“Those of us who do this for a living [forming betting odds] have to face up to some tough questions today,” Shaddick acknowledged. However, Ladbrokes’ political betting master didn’t seem to relate this to himself really, saying it’s not his job to forecast results of political events. “We do this to turn a profit and in that respect, this vote worked out very well for us,” he said.
However, while seeing no evidence of manipulation by ‘big money’, Shaddick admitted that the explanation for the flawed betting odds might be in the fact that “the most affluent sections of society were generally behind ‘Remain’”. Even though this line of reasoning implies that these people would also be more inclined to bet on their favoured referendum outcome, it’s probably the case that there is a correlation between the size of one’s income and the size of their bets.
Whatever may be the reason behind this ostentatious bookmaker failure, they are sure to make less headlines. “I believe people will probably pay less attention to the odds, and bet less,” believes Down. “This referendum has seen a rise of people approaching betting as an investment. Some of these people [who lost a lot of money betting on Remain] will be a lot more cautious in the future.”
