Osama bin Laden Death Boosts Barack Obama’s Second Term Gambling Odds

When an event occurs in United States history like the one that occurred roughly 24 hours ago, everyone has something to say about it.  Here on LBS alone, we have shown you the ripple effect the news of Osama bin Laden’s death has had on college campuses and at Citizens Bank Park, and even showed you a few pictures of a beat up bin Laden — even if they turned out to be top-notch Photoshop work.  Oh yeah, and don’t forget about the Crimson Tide faithful dropping a Roll Tide” as if Nick Saban himself were responsible for the heroic mission.

For all you gamblers out there who are already bored with the bin Laden story, this concerns you too.  SI Hot Clicks passed a story along to us from the sports gambling website Covers.com that highlights how the big news has effected the betting world.  For starters, the website Intrade.com, which is designed for investors to buy and sell shares in the outcome of real-world events, had the chances of Osama bin Laden being captured and killed at 4 percent before the news of his death surfaced.  As the news made its way around and Barack Obama addressed the nation, the market had spiked as high as 98% and then finally closed.

Conspiracy theorists are probably asking themselves why betting would close before there is any actual proof, but Intrade’s Exchange Operations Manager explained to Covers.com that “there wasn’t really anyone out there willing to take a position that bin Laden wasn’t dead” once the word was out.

As for Obama himself, Bodog.com had listed the current Commander in Chief as a -175 favorite to be reelected in 2012 prior to bin Laden’s demise.  Monday morning, the line was adjusted to -250.

It will be interesting to see how the lines are once again affected when Osama’s inevitable “death tape” or whatever you want to call it surfaces.  Will he try to convince his followers that he is indeed alive?  That would certainly make for an interesting twist.