As the U.S. gears up for the highly anticipated rematch between former President Trump and President Biden on Thursday evening at the CNN Presidential Debate, gamblers have been ahead of the game in placing their wagers on how they expect the war of words will turn out.
BetUS, an online sportsbook that has been around for more than 31 years and accurately forecast the outcome of the 2016 election, says it expects more wagers to be placed on this presidential debate than on any other to date.
"We have been totally surprised by the betting interest in this debate," Gary Segars, senior betting analyst for BetUS, told FOX Business. "This isn’t the first time we’ve offered betting on presidential debates. In fact, we’ve been doing it many years, but we have never seen this much action for a debate."
Segars said that what makes this debate so unique is not only the unprecedented number of wagers that the site is taking from customers in America, but from around the world.
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"Our European customers seem every bit as charged up for this debate as their counterparts in the U.S., accounting for a significant percentage of the betting action we are seeing," he said. "The world will be watching on Thursday, and we expect this to be the most wagered-on presidential debate in history."
A few days before the debate, BetUS said that for the prop bet "Will the debate be canceled or postponed," 42% of bets and 55% of dollars wagered at that point had been on the "yes" option, predicting a cancellation or postponement of the debate (oddsmakers, for their part, disagreed by giving the "yes" option underdog odds at +225).
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BetUS said it is taking bets from dozens of countries around the world, and people can bet on how many times Biden will say "folks" or how many times Trump will mention "fake news."
Only 14% of bettors believe Trump will use his trademark campaign slogan "Make America Great Again" during the debate, while 57% believe Biden will utter his familiar "Here’s the deal." Bettors are also banking on Hunter Biden, Jan. 6, and Trump’s legal issues seeing the spotlight on Thursday night.
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Bettors are also betting on the candidates' tie colors and patterns, which BetUS says is "a perennial favorite."
So far, Trump is favored among BetUS bettors to be the first to interrupt the moderator, and he is also currently favored to win the debate.