$1.3 Down the Drain When Sportsbet Paid Out Early on Australian Election

Australian Election 2019

Political markets are not always hot beds of entertainment, but during big campaigns the bets can come flooding in.

This was certainly the case in Australia in 2019, when the Labor Party looked to be trouncing the Coaltion with 7 out of 10 bets going on Labor at odds of $1.16 at the time.

The Coalition were trailing with much longer odds of $4.75, by comparison.

This led to Sportsbet making the ballsy decision to pay out 2 days early, doling out $1.3 million to their customers.

In Sportsbets own words:

“Punters rarely get it wrong on elections.”

Except this time, they did. Very wrong.

Despite polling badly for 3 years prior to the election and Labor winning the popular vote, the Coalition saw a higher than expected turnout and snatched the win.

Sportsbet had to pay out twice after the shock victory, but they handled it well by laughing at themselves – Sportsbet are owned by PaddyPower so they have a similar sense of humour as you an tell.

Anyone who bet on Labor after the early pay out on the 15th won;t have been so happy though, as their money will have been lost.

One punter bet a stonking $1,000,000 on a Labor victory at odds of $1.23, but very sadly for him, he placed it with Ladbrokes. Had he placed the bet with Sportsbet he would have been handed possibly the luckiest $230,000 of all time, as it was, he lost the lot.