Betters rush to back Clinton as polls suggest she is set to win

One UK bookmaker says more money has been put on the Democrat candidate in the past 24hrs than in all of October

The Democratic candidate seems to have recovered in the polls from a dip following the FBI’s revelation that it was reviewing a new set of emails last month (Getty)

Financial markets have already reacted to the latest US election polls with renewed confidence that Hillary Clinton is set for the White House, and it now looks like regular political betters are following suit.

Sporting Index, a UK-based spread betting company, says it has received more money backing the Democrat in the past 24 hours than it did in all of October.

Ms Clinton lost a lot of ground in the polls to Donald Trump after the FBI revealed it was reviewing a new set of her emails 10 days ago.

But she has since rallied, particularly after the FBI said there was nothing in the emails to worry about, and most major pollsters are giving her a four- or five-point lead.

Sporting Index said in a release that its own projections are that Mr Trump will take 24 states bringing him 213 electoral college votes – far short of the 270 required to win.

Ed Fulton, political trading spokesman for Sporting Index, said: “There has been little sign of significant Clinton support over the past month, but we’ve seen a torrent of bets come in the past 24 hours backing Hillary.

“The better-than-Obama early voting results in Nevada, combined with the FBI statement clearing Clinton, has removed doubt in many observers’ minds about the chance of another Clinton presidency.

“If Trump is going to win, he’ll need to turn out millions of disaffected voters to the ballot boxes – or the polls need to be wrong. Clinton would be wise to not count her chickens just yet though, as neither of those scenarios is out of the question.”

PaddyPower paid out on a Clinton victory in mid-October, while all betting sites appear to agree on one thing – this election has been a record-breaker in terms of the amounts people are willing to wager. Betfair, another UK-based bookie, told CNBC that by Sunday, roughly $130m (£105m) had been traded on who will become the next US president.

The market is expected to surpass Brexit voting, which reached $159m, spokeswoman Naomi Totten said. And it dwarfs the roughly $50m laid on the 2012 race.

Ladbrokes said a little over $6m had been bet on its 2016 presidential election markets. A spokesman said that was "at least double" what was wagered in 2012.