Best 13 Political Betting Sites UK & Free Bets for 2023

Top 13 Politics Betting Offers for 2023:

Reviews of the best political betting sites in the UK

#1 Political Betting Site - William Hill

#2 Political Betting Site - Ladbrokes

#3 Political Betting Site - Betfred

#4 Political Betting Site - Coral

#5 Political Betting Site - Unibet

#6 Political Betting Site - bet365

#7 Political Betting Site - Betway

#8 Political Betting Site - 10Bet

#9 Political Betting Site - Smarkets

#10 Political Betting Site - Matchbook

Betting on sports events is the most popular format of betting, due to the regularity of fixtures, variety in sporting events, and the win or lose nature of sport. But is there any reason why we can’t bet on other events happening – instead of betting on the outcome of a sporting fixture, can we start betting on politics? Yes you can, and I want to who you how you can make a start on politics betting in this guide below.

2. What Are Political Betting Sites?

Betting on politics is no different to betting on a sporting outcome, as such, there seems like no better place to host political betting than on a sports betting website. In fact, lots of the big bookmakers offer odds on the outcome of national and international votes, and if you’re used to betting in the sporting markets, you’ll already be familiar with most of the features detailed in this article.

With the reduced frequency of political events to bet on compared to the sporting world, the segment of political betting is far smaller than its sporting counterpart, but the odds available are still regularly updated, and there are some fun bets that you can make too!

3. Political Betting Markets

Due to the multi-year time frames in most political votes, there is no facility for live betting on political bets. Most of the odds available are for outright events such as the outcome of an election, or the nomination of a party leader.

That being said, there are still different outcomes that you can place your outright bets on, so let’s take a look at the most popular outright bets.

 

Bet	What is it?
Next Head of Government	Betting on who the next leader of the government will be, this may be the UK government, US Government, or any of the other large western states.
General Election Party Winner	This is the most commonly placed political bet in the UK, and focuses on which party will win the next general election. This will likely be either Conservative or Labour in the UK, or the Republican or Democratic parties in the United States.
Next Party Leader	Leadership contests can be fierce within a party, and it’s not always the best person for the job that gets voted in as the Party Leader.
London Mayoral Election Result	WIth only its third Mayor since the position was created in 2000, this is the only Mayoral position that you can bet on, as the position is the only directly elected Mayoral position in the UK.
Regional by-election result	By-elections for regional representatives are triggered when an elected Member of Parliament resigns or is no longer able to carry out their duties. As such, bets on by-elections are available on an as-and-when basis.

Betting on political results can be placed on both a party result and an individual representative result. As these outright bets are based on the outcome of the event and not necessarily directly linked to performance of an individual, the odds quoted by political betting sites fluctuate over time.

These odds will be based on polls, media coverage, party mandates and popularity with the general public. As these odds are largely based on information and opinion rather than previous performance, you won’t find handicap odds in the same way that you would in darts betting.

Alternative political bets

Aside from betting on mainstream political parties and results, many bookmakers also provide odds on some less likely election results. Take a look at some of the odds we found on Marcus Rashford, Gary Linekar, and Piers Morgan!

Market	Best Odds	Provided By
Marcus Rashford to become a UK Member of Parliament before 2060	33/1	Ladbrokes
Meghan Markle to become US President by 2065	40/1	Ladbrokes
Kanye West to win 2024 Presidential Election	50/1	Paddy Power
Piers Morgan to become UK Prime Minister before 2040	200/1	Ladbrokes

These ‘special bets’ seem pretty unlikely to happen, but they make for an interesting read, and with some bets being valid until 2060(!) some of these might be worth a tenner. Who knows what state our political world will be in over the next 40 years?

4. Tips for Political Betting

To give yourself the best chance of winning your bets, it’s good to have a well rounded knowledge of the political sphere in the UK or in your region. Here is how you can best equip yourself to increase your likelihood of pacing a winning bet.

Consume Information

Political odds are heavily influenced by polls, media, and current affairs, so the best way to gather information to inform you whether your bets are a good choice is to follow the news and stay up to date with national and international political affairs.

Local Knowledge

If you are up to date with local policies and constituent representatives, you may be able to paint a better picture of the political landscape in your local area and come to different odds than what the bookmakers are supplying. Use your local knowledge to your advantage.

Timing

Timing is critical for political betting, and backing an underdog representative with good odds early on can prove very rewarding. As more information becomes publicly available the time draws nearer to election day, bookmakers can reduce their odds dramatically, so taking advantage of early odds can work in your favour.

5. Political Betting Calendar

Bets on political events can be made years in advance of the event happening, as most countries’ governments run on a 4 year term length. These are the main events that you should keep in the back of your mind if you want to bet on UK or international politics.

UK General Election

The next General Election in the UK is due to be held on Thursday 4th May in 2024, so you have a while to get your bets in before then. Bets on the result of the General Election can be staked on the winning party winning party leader, or dates when a party will come into power.

UK Local Elections

Local elections for your representative party in your area also run on a 4 year cycle, with the next local election date set for 5th May 2022. Watch out for by-elections that may be taking place sooner though.

United States Presidential Election

Voting for perhaps the most powerful position in a democratic country takes place on November 5th 2024. The current favourite for the role is Donald Trump as he looks to take back a second term in the White House, but as we know, the odds can change dramatically before then.

European Election dates

You can also place bets on some of the major European elections, including those of France, Germany, Ireland, and Sweden. Some sites also provide odds on which countries might be next to leave the European Union.

Here’s a handy summary of all the major elections and dates that you should be keeping your eyes on.

Political Event	Date
UK General Election	2nd May 2024
UK Local Elections	5th May 2022
US Presidential Election	5th Nov 2024
French Presidential Election	10th April 2022
German Federal Election	26th October 2025
Irish General Election	20th February 2025 (on or before)

6. Where to Bet?

Despite its recent popularity, Political betting holds a far smaller share of the gambling market than sports betting, with fewer opportunities to place your bets due to the long timeframe of global politics. This means there is a smaller selection of bookmakers providing odds for political events, so it might take you longer to find a site that works for you.

But don’t worry, we’ve done the research to filter through all the regular betting sites to find out which sites offer political betting  markets, and what you can expect from each bookmaker.

Here is our side-by-side comparison of some of the biggest bookmakers providing political odds.

Bookmaker	UK Markets	US Markets	European Markets	Special Markets	Brexit Specials	Price Requests	What we liked most
William Hill	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌	❌	✔️	Most international markets
Ladbrokes	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	Lots of special bets
Paddy Power	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌	✔️	✔️	Lots of American markets
Betfred	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌	✔️	Fun punts on Donald Trump
Coral	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	Lots of American markets
10Bet	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌	❌	❌	Extensive odds on next country to leave the EU
SBK	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	Optimised mobile app
SkyBet	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌	❌	✔️	Boosted Odds

 

We can see that all the major bookmakers offer odds on the UK, US, and some European elections, but whilst some just provided basic odds on the primary governmental election, it was good to see odds provided on US senator elections and wider coverage of European elections, particularly from the likes of Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, and William Hill.

Whilst inclusion of special markets providing odds for rank outsiders (Piers Morgan came up multiple times) might not be for everyone, we loved to see these odds provided, even if just for a bit of a laugh.

Most bet on political events of all time

Although nobody knows for sure, it is believed that the 2020 United States of America general election was the most bet on political event of all time. This is because even if you are a person with no American roots or connections, they highly televise all of their elections for the world to see.

It’s understood that the bigger the anticipation for the government elections, the more people will be interested in an outcome, and therefore more people will be interested in betting on it. If there is a huge market and there are rumours that Donald Trump is going back into office in the USA, even those who don’t necessarily want that to be the outcome, if they believe it to happen enough, they could still place a wager. If he becomes the President again, then you could potentially win yourself some money again which is the minimum temptation people face when wanting to bet.

Step by step guide: How to bet on politics betting websites

For our example on political betting UK, we’ll be walking through how to bet on politics on the UK betting site: Ladbrokes.

Step #1: Register your account or login

After choosing the betting site you wish to use (in this case Ladbrokes) head over to their website and either login if you are an existing user, or register yourself an account if you are new. You can register an account by clicking on the green “Join” button in the top right corner of the homepage. This will open up three windows which together create your registration form.

On the first page of your form you will be asked to input your email address and password that creates your account. Make sure you remember these as they are the details you’ll need anytime you wish to log in. Continue to the next page when this is complete.

On page two you will be required to put in your legal name and date of birth which both should match your identification documents (like driving licence or passport). Once these have been put in you can continue to the final page of the form which is where you will need to enter your postcode or first line of your home address. Make sure this matches your legal documents as you will need these to prove your identification if you ever get locked out of your account. Finally you will need to select what contact methods you are happy to accept if any by ticking the boxes, and then you can click the green button at the end when you are ready to start betting.

Step #2:Deposit funds into your account

After your account is created you will be automatically sent to the homepage. From here you will need to head to the e-wallet by clicking on the green “deposit” button in the top right hand side of the screen.

When you first get into the e-wallet you will be met with the below screen. Since this is the first time you are depositing into the account you will need to select a payment method. You can do this by clicking the button on the left side. This will open the next screen where you can choose your method of payment. The most common choice for betting online is a debit card so click that to start the deposit process.

As you can see above, the left side of the screen is where you input the main card details including the name on your debit card, your card’s long number and the expiry date. On the right side of the screen you will then need to choose the amount of money you would like to deposit either manually or by selecting one of the suggested amounts. Lastly you will need to type in the CVV code which is the 3 numbers on the back of the card before clicking the green “deposit” button.

Step #3: Finding your betting event and market

Now that your account is funded you are ready to start betting. First you must find the correct event to bet on. Since our example is based on political betting we need to find the political events section of the Ladbrokes website. Even though “politics” is not a sport, in order to find the political events you will need to look through the sportsbook on the left sidebar of the screen. If you scroll down the page you will eventually find the section you need which you can click.

Pro tip: This site puts their betting categories in alphabetical order so it’s very easy to find what you need.

Step #4: Creating your bet slip and placing your bet

Once you have reached the political section of the site you will be met with some upcoming events in which you can bet on. If you have a specific election in mind you can find it in this list, if you cannot see it immediately you might need to scroll down. In this example we will be betting on a Scottish election that determines the next Scottish first minister.

One the left you will see each of the candidates. On the right you will see the odds for each individual person. These odds determine both the likelihood of an event as well as the earning potential of a winning outcome. As you can see in the first image, the bet slip is blank once you have selected the person you want to back.

In the below image when you choose the stake amount the potential earnings change from £0 to £140. This is because the odds determined the earnings and the stake is going to be £20. If you bet a smaller value stake then the potential earnings would be much lower too. If you are happy with the potential earnings amount and your chosen stake then you must remember to actually place the bet – otherwise it won’t count!

Step #5: Settling bets and checking if you won

Luckily for users of Ladbrokes, the site notifies you with the results of your settled bets including those on your politics betting slip. A settled bet is one that has “completed” and that you have a final outcome on your bet. If you made a wrong prediction then nothing happens. If you made a successful prediction and have earned yourself some money, then you will be able to use that balance in your e-wallet to make new bets or simply withdraw the funds to your original payment method. Ladbrokes have a quick withdrawal time so you will have your winnings very quickly!

 

How the news affects political betting sites

Political markets, unlike those in sports, are based on consistent news flow. When trading a tennis match, for example, the score will greatly influence the outcome and determine your trading strategies. But until the polls close, political markets are scoreless. The conclusion of a result is still largely guesswork at this time, with media outlets and broadcasters controlling the language of the news flow.

In a way, this gives bettors an upper hand, since they can follow the news and make a bet relatively last minute to give themselves a better chance of being correct (rather than when the markets first open). This is a similar tactic that punters use when they are trying to make bets on a football match. If you place a bet in-play then you will already have an idea of how the game has gone up until that point so you’ll have more chance of placing an accurate bet. For example if an event is heavily in favour of person A to win the election based on 17 states, compared to person B who only has 4, it’s not guaranteed that person A will win but it is looking much more likely in comparison to their opponent. By placing last minute bets there’s more chance you bet correctly, but your odds will be significantly lower.

7. Summary

Whether you’re looking to diversify your betting from the usual sports bets or you think you’re certain who is going to win the next election and you’re new to betting, the good news is that there are plenty of bookmakers providing odds for political gambling.

With odds provided on elections in the UK, US, and lots of European countries, there is lots to choose from. Keep in mind the timelines of political bets are much longer than sports bets due to the nature of the governmental term lengths, but this can give you large scope to profit as odds can change dramatically over a few years as party popularity fluctuates.

To get the most out of political betting, we recommend keeping up to date with the latest news, current affairs, and political party policy, and using your own local knowledge for regional elections.

Political Betting FAQs: