Trump backers vow to sue Betfair over Presidential Election market settlement

Hordes of disgruntled European bettors have flocked to social media to express their anger over Flutter-owned betting exchange Betfair settling the 2020 Presidential Election betting markets in favor of Democrat candidate Joe Biden.

They argue that President Donald Trump could still win the race to the White House if he is able to prove, as he has repeatedly claimed without any evidence so far, that election fraud was rampant.

On December 14 the Electoral College formally cast its votes and Biden was confirmed as the president-elect. Congress meets on January 6 to validate the votes, although this is considered a mere formality.

In a statement on its website on December 15, Betfair wrote: “The Electoral College formally cast its votes on 14 December and this enabled us to settle the remaining Betfair Exchange markets on the US election.

“The Next President market rules stipulated that we would settle the market on the candidate that had the most projected Electoral College votes. Following the Electoral College votes being cast, that candidate is clearly Joe Biden. Thanks for your patience.”

A tweet by the Flutter-owned exchange announcing the statement attracted 327 replies and more than 70 retweets, mostly from people disputing Betfair’s decision to settle the market and those who had large liabilities on Trump.

One user posted a video on YouTube which showed he was £16,900 ($22,812) in the red on Trump and that he was confident Betfair will have to pay out on the incumbent president when he eventually takes office in January.

Meanwhile, an article in the Daily Beast featured an aggrieved Amsterdam-based British woman who claimed she would have won nearly €2.7m  ($3.3m) on a Trump victory but had now lost €140,000 ($170,407).

Others who backed Trump on the exchange are threatening legal action on Twitter against Betfair.

Those au fair with the rules say the people arguing Trump can still win and that Betfair shouldn’t have closed the market don’t have a leg to stand on as the rules stated the market would be settled on the most Electoral College votes.

Betfair attracted criticism from customers with winning positions on Biden for not settling the market weeks ago, as many bookmakers and rival exchange Smarkets did.

It seems many then backed Trump at long odds believing that if he could prove voter fraud and was unable to overturn the result their bets would be winning tickets.

A total of almost £1.7bn ($2.3bn) was matched on the Betfair Exchange on the Next President market, easily eclipsing the previous record of £200m  ($270m) matched on the 2016 election.