Speaking with what he describes as “a certain amount of authority, from my own personal history in such matters”, my old boss and former Labor Prime Minister, Bob Hawke thinks Kevin Rudd’s night on the tiles in New York “made it easier for a lot of punters to identify with Kevin.”

Not a normal form guide comment but elections are no ordinary race meeting and punting PMs are a rarity in the straight laced environment of today’s Parliament House.

Bob has picked up his pen to play form analyst on the website of the Darwin based bookmaker SportsBet where he will give us a weekly update “to help you make an honest quid by investing on the result of the up coming election.”  

His opinion number one is pointing the punters towards taking the $1.53 for a $1 being offered by his mate Matt Tripp.

For those wanting something slightly more exotic to bet on than the simple overall result, have a look at the Sportingbet and Portland bookmaking sites. They are offering prices on individual electorates and there looks to be value in many of them if you agree with Bob in his new role as the punter’s friend and think Labor really does deserve to be favourite.

I have done the form for every seat and calculated what I think the fair odds should be and shown the current Sportingbet and Portland prices. You can download the PDF of that here.