Punters favour regional parties in state

Hyderabad: Punters are having a field day betting on the general elections.

With several alternate parties emerging against the traditional ones, betting operators are offering various odds for national, state and Assembly results.

The odds being offered at the national level are on whether Narendra Modi will become the next PM, whether the NDA will cross the magic number 272 and whether the Congress will manage to get 100 seats.

In Seemandhra, the regional parties are the favourites of the punters. Presently, the odds being offered here are “85 or 88” and “12 or 14” on YSR Congress in Seemandhra.

“Of the total 175 assembly seats and 25 Lok Sabha seats in Seemandhra, if I bet on YSRC 88 then it is “yes” on YSRC forming the government. If I bet on YSRC 85 then it is on Telugu Desam forming the government in the state,” said a punter based in the city.

To form a government in the Seemandhra, a party needs at least 88 seats. Similarly, bets are being placed whether YSRC will get 14 of the total 25 parliamentary seats.

According to bookies, the betting, which started off in March, had high takers for “YSRCP 88” in the beginning, but with many candidates switching over to TD and the party announcing an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, punters are increasingly betting on

“YRSCP 85” (formation of a Telugu Desam government).

In Telangana, the odds offered are on the Telangana Rashtra Samithi getting a majority of 70 of the total 119 Assembly seats and of the Congress crossing 40 seats.

While these odds offered are on the results that will come only after the elections, there are also day-today bets being placed, like a party offering a particular seat to a particular aspirant.

“For example, today (April 15), the betting was on whether the saffron party would give the Narsapuram Lok Sabha seat to Raghuram Krishnam Raju or to someone else,” said the punter.

Odds are generally offered for various scenarios. A punter can bet any amount on a range of scenarios, for instance, YSRC 88.

If this comes true, the bettor gets 26 paise on every rupee bet. If the bet was for Rs 1 lakh, the punter gets back Rs 1.26 lakh if he wins.

There is, however, an inverse relationship between odds and the chances of winning — the latter declines as the former rises.