Here’s a nice piece of market making from the entrepreneurial Paddy Power’s odds on a successor to Peter Robinson. Nigel Dodds is 4/5 on, which is probably just about what you might expect for a deputy leader. The boul Paddy says “From a betting point of view it’s beginning to look like a one horse race with eighty percent of the bets placed so far supporting Mr Dodds”. We’ll see if it stays that way when and under what circumstances there is an actual leadership competition.
From a party point of view though, this is good news viz a viz their odds on holding their dominant position in the Assembly next year, given the UCU-NF project is now in tatters, and the TUV dog so utterly failed to bark. You sense several tense shoulders beginning to relax at Dundela Avenue since the small hours of Friday morning.
Here’s the details from the presser:
Next Leader of the DUP
4/5 Nigel Dodds
9/4 Arlene Foster
5/1 Ian Paisley Jnr
8/1 Jeffrey Donaldson
12/1 Sammy Wilson
16/1 Edwin Poots
20/1 Nelson McCausland
20/1 David Simpson
25/1 Robin Newton
Number of DUP seats at the next Assembly Election
3/1 Over 36 seats
5/4 32 to 36 seats
7/4 27 to 31 seats
10/1 22 to 26 seats
12/1 17 to 21 seats
16/1 Under 17 seats
Number of Sinn Fein seats at the next Assembly Election
10/11 Over 30 seats
3/2 28 to 30 seats
6/1 25 to 27 seats
12/1 21 to 24 seats
22/1 20 seats or under
Ends
All prices remain subject to fluctuation.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty