Bet on the Budget?

In my home town this week it is jump racing’s premier meeting, the Cheltenham festival. If you don’t fancy a flutter on the horses how about having a little punt on tomorrow’s budget. An interesting article from the BBC today looks at some odds on Alistair Darling’s first budget.

There are a variety of possible bets you could place on tomorrow’s budget. A starting point could be a punt on the length of the budget speech, William Hill is offering 8-1 that the speech will last 45minutes or less, and 12-1 that it will go on for 81minutes or more. The spreading betting group Cantor Spreadfair is predicting a speech of between 61 to 64minutes.

Cantor have also offered predictions on alcohol duty, increases of 1 to 1.5p on a pint of beer, 8p to 10p on standard bottle of wine and 12.5p to 13.5p on a standard bottle of spirit. Willian hills have also offered odds of 7-2 on the price of beer will go up by 5p or more.

Other odds and predictions, some of them rather quirky include:

Sporting Index believes he will just take one sip of tap water during a 57minute speech.
Spreadfair predict that he will mention the government owned bank, Northern Rock, six or seven times
Ladbrokes offering 50 - 1 that nationalisation is the first phrase or word he mentions
William Hill, offer the outside bet of 1000-1 that Mr Darling (who has a cat and a rabbit) will take a penny of income tax for pet owners.
Chancellor’s tie? Favourite, blue at 6-4.

I will watch with interest to see where I should have placed my money!