The director of the longest-running election betting market in modern US politics used to work in a relatively sleepy field, presiding over what he called a “connoisseurs’ market”, where bets were capped at $500 (£388) and no-one made much money.
But the world Thomas Gruca, a marketing professor at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business, now operates in has changed dramatically.
In the last few weeks, as the US barrels towards a presidential election that most pundits and polls say is too close to call, a new crop of companies has exploded on to the scene.
