Updated 1.57pm
Two major betting companies are currently both offering odds in favour of a Labour Party win.
Bookie Leo Vegas is offering odds of 1.3 on a Labour victory, while betting exchange Betfair, with odds of 1.1, is even more convinced of Joseph Muscat being re-elected after Saturday's election. However, it should be noted that low amounts of money have been matched at these odds and the spread is relatively large.
Both odds indicate a probability of a Labour win well above 70%.
By contrast, Leo Vegas is offering punters odds of 3.2 on a Nationalist victory. Those odds are wider than its initial 2.4 offering earlier this month. This seems to suggest that the probability for a Nationalist victory dropped by about 10%.
The betting company, which has offices in Sweden, Malta and the UK, is also offering bets on the number of votes obtained.
Leo Vegas’ odds on the magnitude of a win are also of interest, with their odds indicating that Labour are more than 60 per cent likely to win with more than 10,000 votes.
Odds of 1.85 for a 15,000 vote swing for either party indicate that the bookie believes any swing is likely to be smaller than that.
Betfair is also offering odds on who will be Malta's next Prime Minister, with Joseph Muscat at 1.36 and Simon Busuttil at 3.6. Marlene Farrugia is quoted at 100, AD's Arnold Cassola is a 300 outsider while a €1 bet on Moviment Patrijotti Maltin's Henry Battistino being PM could win you €1000.
Surveys carried out by different news organisations have given the Labour Party a comfortable lead for Saturday's election, though with around 20 per cent claiming they were still undecided, analysts say the election could still spring a surprise.
What do the odds mean?
Odds of 1.1 are extremely narrow and suggest a bookie is very confident of an outcome. In essence, every €1 you bet on such a result can win you an additional 10c along with your initial stake.
Betting on odds of 3.2, meanwhile, means that for every €1 you bet, you stand to win €2.20 over-and-above your original stake if the outcome comes to fruition.
For a more in-depth explanation of betting odds and how they are calculated, click here.