No election party is complete without a punt. It’s like watching the Melbourne Cup without previously making a trip to your local TAB, only to tell all your friends you knew the winner would get up.

So what to do? Labor are at Makybe Diva-like odds — SportingBet has them today at $1.22. A boring bet with some risk and very little return. The Coalition are at $4.15, good odds but you may be backing a horse that’ll be put down before the race finishes.

So where’s the value? My advice is to back a candidate by their name. It’s the only way of a mug punter. I like the sound of, though not entirely sure why, Darren Cheeseman (ALP) who is at $1.82 for the Liberal held seat of Corangamite. Also, the Liberal candidate of Lindsay, Karen Chijoff, may do a “Bradbury” against ALP candidate David Bradbury, netting you an $8 win.

Otherwise, back the seats that everyone will be watching, the “Group One” races if you will. Take the value bets in Eden-Monaro, Bennelong and Wentworth – which means backing Gary Nairn (Lib, $4.50), Maxine McKew (ALP, $2.20) and George Newhouse (ALP, $2.30) respectively.

But saying all that, I told everyone to back Princess Coup in the Cup, who subsequently ran 13th. Happy punting!