Chicago Olympic Odds Improve with Obama Win

The odds of Chicago winning its bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games have improved since the election of Barack Obama to the US presidency, finance news network Bloomberg has reported.

At UK bookmaker William Hill, Chicago has shortened from pre-election odds of 6/4 to odds of 11/10 following the Illinois senator's victory.


Chicago already held favoritism before the US election, in its four-horse race with Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro to host the summer games.

Other bookmakers, including Betfair and Ladbrokes, have also reported a correlation between betting on Obama to win the election and betting on Chicago's bid to win the Olympics.

Early stage
But William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said the fact that UK bookmakers such as his cannot take bets from US citizens has meant there isn't as much of an interest as there could be in the 2016 contest.

"We've had bits and pieces of interest," Sharpe said. "But people here are more interested in the [2012] London Olympics."

Because there are fewer bets placed, the odds can change more rapidly than in events where more bets are being placed.

1964 host city Tokyo is William Hill's second-favorite to host the 2016 Olympics at 9/4. Rio is 7/2 to host the first ever Olympics in South America, while Madrid is 12/1 to follow in the footsteps of another Spanish city, Barcelona, which held the Olympics in 1992.