According to the website Vegas Election Odds, on Wednesday President Trump was tied with or leading Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden at every major Vegas election sportsbook.
The website showed Bovada displaying the two candidates tied at -110; BetOnline with Trump at-120 and Biden at +100 (Even); and My Bookie with Trump at -140 and Biden at +110.
The website, citing BetOnline, said there had been a 40-point swing in the odds toward Trump in Arizona, though Biden was still leading there, a ten-point swing toward Trump in Michigan with Biden still leading, a 210-point swing in Minnesota, where Biden was ahead, a 50-point swing toward Trump in North Carolina, and a 100-point swing toward Trump in Pennsylvania.
“Betting on which direction a state will vote has become a part of the political betting lines available on the 2020 presidential election,” Vegas Election Odds noted. “Some sportsbooks provide odds on every single state, while others may only include toss up or swing states. This makes sense as there really isn’t much risk in predicting that a solid red or blue state will vote in their typical fashion.”
Bookies.com stated on Thursday, “The general election odds have been teetering back-and-forth all week, settling Thursday with both candidates dead even at the betting shops. Trump’s odds went down to -110 while Biden’s went up to -110 as the race is now a pick ‘em with oddsmakers.”
On Wednesday, Fortune reported:
According to betting website Smarkets, the incumbent president and his Democratic challenger are now virtually neck-and-neck in their chances of victory for the first time in three months. As of Wednesday morning, the site’s betting market data gave Biden a 50% probability of winning the presidency, with Trump only just trailing with a 49% chance of his own.
That’s a major turnaround from where the two candidates stood at this time last month, when Biden led Trump by 28 percentage points. It’s also the first time since the turn of June that Trump and Biden’s respective probabilities have been so close, according to Smarkets.
Smarkets also reported that Trump has a 1-in-3 chance of winning the election while losing the national popular vote.
“President Donald Trump continued to gain ground on Joe Biden over the weekend in betting odds on the U.S. presidential election, which now appears to be a toss-up,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on August 31, adding, “Democratic nominee Biden dipped from a -130 favorite over Trump to -118 on Thursday following the Republican National Convention. But the election is now a pick’em at offshore sportsbook Pinnacle (-108/-108) and at William Hill sportsbook in the United Kingdom. ‘It’s a coin flip,’ William Hill U.S. sportsbook director Nick Bogdanovich said.”
According to RealClearPolitics, which combines various polls and then averages the results, the election is too close to call; the percentage for Biden winning the election currently stands at 50.3%, while Trump’s chances stand at 49.3%.