WITH South Africa less than a week away from witnessing one of the most highlycontested elections since the dawn of its democracy, betting on who will lead the country after May 29 has never been so tricky or so much fun. Online betting giant SunBet has made it cool for punters to place bets on which politician they think is likely to become president, or who will become a provincial premier or Cabinet minister. In what is believed to be a first for South Africa, the country is following hot on the heels of the US and UK, where voters are betting on the outcome of their own 2024 elections.
Speaking to The Saturday Star earlier this week, just seven days before South Africa's May 29 national and provincial elections, SunBet's chief operating officer, Gideon Mann, said this type of betting was becoming more and more popular in some parts of the world. "Election betting is extremely popular around the world, so we knew there would be South Africans keen to place a bet on their own elections.
To our knowledge, this is a first for SA betting. "Some elections see fierce betting activity. To date, the 2020 showdown between Joe Biden and Donald Trump has attracted the most bets of any single event in history a multiple more than the American Superbowl, or even globally popular events such as the Uefa Champions League final," Mann said. South African punters are spoilt for choice in their own imminent elections, with more than 50 political parties and 15 independent candidates and provincial leaders vying for political positions in the country's most contested and closelywatched election.
But what can we expect from the election betting? According to Mann, the country's choices are lighthearted and fun. South Africans have a long list of leaders to bet on. These include President Cyril Ramaphosa and political party leaders such as John Steenhuisen, Julius Malema, Vuyo Zungula, Gayton McKenzie and Jacob Zuma, who are all vying for national leadership positions.
Mann said that if punters fancied their chance of striking it rich by betting on who will become the next president, premier Of minister, they could end up being on the money. "Often betting patterns can provide interesting insights into elections. We know that with Brexit in the UK, the analysts and media all predicted that Britons would vote against leaving the EU, but betting patterns by volume rather than value showed punters were significantly on the side of the UK's vote to leave. "We intended our election betting to be more lighthearted and fun, so our bet limits are small. We are seeing this more like our coverage of the Jake PaulMike Tyson boxing match. "In terms of elections, we are also offering bets on the outcome of the UK and Swedish elections in a few weeks, and intend to cover the BidenTrump rematch, which likely will become globally the new biggestever betting event," Mann said.
When it comes to the firm favourites, Mann indicates that even though it is still early days, with their election betting platform only having been launched this past Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa is leading the pack. "We have seen good interest so far. South Africans tend to place their bets closer to the events, so we are still early in the journey. "We have already had more punters place their bets by a large multiple than any total participant numbers in publiclyreleased election polls. "President Cyril Ramaphosa for president! So far, this is the biggest bet taken by volume. Interestingly, to date, 67% of the punters betting on him are ladies under the age of 45 which is skewed versus other bets . "Perhaps he needs to also run for sexiest South African man of the year?"
