It's true that more money is being bet on sports longshots, but that doesn't mean it's the main reason for a four-fold jump in political betting outcomes. A 21 million increase in sports longshots, from 103 million to $124 million, is a drop in the bucket compared to the kind of seismic shift needed to make political markets surge like that. For a true peak performance increase in political markets, you'd expect something big, like a major election surprise that really moves the needle, not a modest rise in a completely different game. The actual leverage for such a jump would come from events within the political sphere itself, like a candidate dropping out, which has far more impact than a sports bet.