David Maddox: The Numbers Game (15) - Shouting the European odds

As the European election beckons on Thursday there may be one other group apart from political party members who take much of an interest - gamblers. With the expenses scandal hanging over the whole contest there are genuine fears of a record low turn out.

As mentioned in my blog earlier, this looks set to benefit the smaller parties and it appears that unfortunately the BNP are odds on to get a seat.

The BNP bet is among a series of interesting ones highlighted by Betfair listed below which also allows people to put their money where their mouth is regarding a potential Labour meltdown at the polls - 3-1 looks a reasonably decent bet for zero to nine seats in the current climate.

• European Elections BNP To Win A Seat? – 2-5 Yes, 12-5 No
• European Elections Total UKIP Seats – 5-6 Less Than 15 Seats, 11-10 More than 15 Seats
• European Elections Labour v UKIP – 5-4 Labour, UKIP, 9-2 Tie
• European Elections Total Labour Seats – 5-4 thirteen to fifteen seats, 11-5 ten to twelve seats, 3-1 zero to nine seats, 9-2 sixteen to seventeen seats, 11-2 eighteen or more seats
• European Elections Labour v Lib Dems – 5-6 Labour, 5-4 Lib Dems, 9-2 Tie
• Next General Election Overall Majority – 4-9 Conservative Majority, 14-5 No Overall Majority, 14-1 Labour Majority, 129-1 Any Other Party Majority