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British bookmakers see surge in bets backing Brexit

Xinhua, June 7, 2016 Adjust font size:

British bookmakers have seen a sudden surge in bets on a Brexit -- the UK quitting the European Union (EU) -- a leading gambling firm said on Monday.

The EU referendum is on June 23 and Sporting Index said that it had received 20 times more bets in the past three days on the referendum than it did on the Scottish independence referendum in 2014.

A majority of those bets have backed Brexit, leading the firm to predict a voter share of 47.5 percent for the Leave camp.

However, according to Sporting Index, this is still behind the Remain camp which it predicts has 52.5 percent of the vote.

Ed Fulton, political spokesman for Sporting Index, said: "The volume of bets we've taken on the EU referendum in the past 72 hours is incredible considering we are still over two weeks away from polling day. If this frenzy of activity continues, the EU referendum will likely turnout to be a bigger political betting event than the last few general elections put together."

"The weight of money is starting to really build up behind a vote for Brexit, narrowing the gap between the two outcomes to just five percentage points on our markets at this early stage," Fulton added.

However, according to Sporting Index's markets, Britain is expected to still be a member of the EU after the crucial vote with "Remain" winning 52.5 per cent of the vote.

Bets on Leave winning the referendum had outnumbered bets on Remain by nearly two to one, but Fulton said that with TV debates coming up and 17 days to go, "it's still very much all to play for." Endit