Fed: Bookie cuts odds on Coalition victory next election

AAP General News (Australia)
04-30-2005
Fed: Bookie cuts odds on Coalition victory next election

CANBERRA, April 30 AAP - Online bookmaker Centrebet has cut its odds of a coalition
election victory in three years time following reports that Prime Minister John Howard
planned to seek a fifth term.

Centrebet sports betting manager Gerard Daffy said that they had cut the odds on a
coalition victory from 1.55 to 1.5 and lengthened the odds against a Labor victory from
2.30 to 2.40.

"The prime minister is the coalition's greatest asset," he said in a statement.

"Reports of his desire to fight the next election will alarm Labor more than (Peter) Costello."

The Sydney Daily Telegraph newspaper today reported that Mr Howard planned to lead
the government into the next federal election.

Mr Howard believed he could defeat Opposition Leader Kim Beazley a third time and had
no plans to retire, the paper said.

"I'm not about to find another job," he was quoted as saying.

"I'm not planning on going anywhere."

Mr Daffy said there was independent evidence indicating Centrebet's election markets
were more accurate than the opinion polls.

He said a study conducted by United States university researchers found its odds on
the 2001 Australian federal election forecast the outcome correctly and also provided
very precise estimates of outcomes in more than 40 individual electorates.

AAP mb/sco

KEYWORD: HOWARD BET

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