Barack Obama and John McCain may have been campaigning for what seems like an eternity (it’s hard to remember a time before this all started), but with just over two weeks left it’s looking harder than ever for McCain to turn this around. Gallup’s daily tracking poll doesn’t make comfortable viewing for the McCain camp no matter what day they look at it, while the Politico website projects that Obama will win the electoral college vote easily. So with Obama such a red-hot favourite, where is the value betting?

The first place to look is in the voter turnout market. In the 2004 election only 56.69% of those registered to vote made it to the polling booth, but this year should see a significantly higher turnout. The effects of two increasingly unpopular wars, coupled with lingering resentment from the handling of Hurricane Katrina had already led to an increase in voter registrations. The current economic troubles has ensured a record registration for this election, and if anything is guaranteed to get people out to their local polling station it’s financial worries. Backing a turnout of over 60% looks the way to go here.

With Obama looking like a shoo-in for the Oval Office another interesting market is his winning margin. It could be worth keeping an eye on the opinion polls and electoral college projections during the next two weeks, but at the minute the smart money will be on Obama to win by 171-180, and at a tasty price as well. You can bet on the US Election here.

Sean

As the economic climate in the US worsens, presidential hopefuls Barak Obama and John McCain are doing some finger pointing, not to boost their chances of election, but because they know what’s wrong and they want change (yeah right).
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On the same day that the Cristiano Ronaldo saga came to a close, Brett Favre finally had his future decided. Favre is a Packer no more, having been traded to the New York Jets. While this puts an end to the current media circus surrounding the player, expect it all to start again come September.

New York is hardly the most retiring of places and the green half of the city will welcome one of the NFL’s all-time greats with open arms, particularly as he will invoke memories of another legendary Jets quarter-back, Joe Namath. If Favre can lead the Jets into the play-offs he will become an instant hero in New York. Meanwhile, back in Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers faces the unenviable task of replacing fan favourite Favre.

Some pundits in the US reckon Favre is the big loser in all of this, but it’s hard to see how. The Jets had a win-loss record of 4-12 last season and never made it out of their division, so they can’t get much worse. The Packers on the other hand have a lot to lose. If Rodgers doesn’t produce the goods on a regular basis the way Favre did, then head coach Mike McCarthy will be under considerable pressure.

Sean

If you want to keep up to date with the latest goings on in the world of sport, then we have the perfect thing for you. We have just launched the ibar, an RSS feed ticker that brings all the latest sports stories to your Internet Explorer browser.

At the moment it’s only available on IE, but the new release will be out before the beginning of the Premier League season and will be compatible with most browsers, including Firefox. Anyone who downloads this version will get an automatic update when the new release comes out.

The ibar is free to download and has over 7,000 news feeds, including most major newspapers, sporting websites and television stations.

For more information and to get your free ibar click here.

Sean