Conservative candidate Andy Street is the bookies' favourite.
The polls opened this morning in the major towns and cities of the West Midlands, where voting will start to elect their new Mayor. After months of campaigning, the six candidates will be hoping their respective messages have resonated with voters.
Opinion polls suggest it’s a two-horse race between Conservative candidate Andy Street and Labour’s Sion Simon, with many believing the second preference vote will be the deciding factor. Odds also suggest that it will be either Street or Simon walking away with the honour. The Conservative candidate is the 8/15 favourite, implying a 65.2% chance of winning; whereas Sion Simon’s price of 6/4 indicates a 40% of being announced the new Mayor of the West Midlands.
Initially the money was piling in for Sion Simon following the announcement of the six candidates running. The Labour candidate accounted for just over 51% of bets on the next Mayor of the West Midlands via Oddschecker, in the first week of April. However, as we’ve got closer to the date, the tables have turned and Andy Street has become a lot more popular with punters. This week, the Conservative representative has accounted for 59% of all bets placed on the market.
The four other candidates are James Burn (Green- 150/1), Pete Durnell (UKIP – 80/1), Beverley Nielsen (Lib Dem – 50/1) and Graham Stevenson (Communist - 500/1).
An Oddschecker spokesperson said “Looking at the odds for each constituency in the West Midlands for the General Election, there’s no real surprise this is a close contest. Even though the majority of punters are backing Andy Street, the bigger stakes are being placed on Labour representative Sion Simon. Factoring in betting patterns, local opinion polls and also General Election (constituency) odds - I believe Sion Simon will in the vote.”
