General Election: Edinburgh South '˜most gambled on' Scottish constituency

Ian Murray's seat has seen the most amount of bets placed on it.

Labour MP Ian Murray. Picture: Scott Taylor

Bookmakers have revealed that the Edinburgh seat previously held by Labour’s Ian Murray has seen the most amount of betting activity of any Scottish constituency for the upcoming General Election.

With voters going to the polls in less than a fortnight, many canny gamblers are trying to make a few quid by staking on the outcome of individual seats.

And Ladbrokes have revealed that the seat that in Scotland that has attracted the most attention is Edinburgh South, which was Labour’s sole Scottish seat in the last parliament.

Ian Murray won the seat against the grain of the SNP tsunami in 2015, winning by just over 2,600 votes.

He is thought to have been aided by the fact his SNP opponent was unmasked as a ‘cybernat’ in the lead up to the vote, with a string of offensive social media posts to his name.

He is still the favourite, with Ladbrokes odds of 8/11 against 9/4 for the SNP candidate, former MSP Jim Eadie.

The seat is a potential three-way marginal, with the Tories’ Stephanie Smith available at odds of 7/2 to spring an upset from third.

The top five constituencies for bettors, based on number of bets placed, are Edinburgh South; Edinburgh West, East Dunbartonshire, Gordon and Orkney & Shetland.

Matthew Shaddick, Ladbrokes’ Head of Political Betting, told the Scotsman: “In Edinburgh South, our most popular Scottish market, most of the money has been for Labour, with very little for the SNP, though it’s probably the closest 3-way fight in the whole of the UK.

In contrast to most of their targets in England, punters seems to have a lot of confidence behind Lib Dems as they seek to gain Edinburgh West, North East Fife, and East Dunbartonshire.

“Former First Minister Alex Salmond is still a pretty strong favourite in the Gordon seat he won in 2015, but there have been quite a few people backing a shock Tory gain.”