Michael Smithson (born 11 May 1946) is a writer, a former Liberal Democrat politician and expert on betting on politics who in 2004 founded the website politicalbetting.com. Since January 2008 he has been the full-time editor of the site. As a result, ''The Daily Telegraph'' described him as the 33rd most influential over-50 on Twitter in 2014. He has been described as "perhaps the most influential person in the British political betting community".

Early career

Much of his early career was a BBC News journalist. From 1977 to 1982 he represented the UK's radio and television journalists on the National Executive Committee of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). Since 1994, he has worked as Director of Development running the fundraising for five

UK universities Universities in the United Kingdom have generally been instituted by royal charter, papal bull, Act of Parliament, or an instrument of government under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 or the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. Deg ...

- for the London School of Economics from 1994 to 1996, for Cambridge University from 1996 to 1999, for Oxford University from 1999 to 2005, and for the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

from 2005 to April 2007. He also had a spell at Open University. During his university fundraising career he has overseen approaches that have led to more than £550m being raised. This included the $100m gift by James Martin to establish the

James Martin 21st Century School The Oxford Martin School is a research and policy unit based in the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford. It was founded in June 2005 as the James Martin 21st Century School and is located in the original building of the Indian I ...

at the University of Oxford - the largest ever single alumni donation to a UK university. He is a former fellow of

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...

and

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

Political career

He joined the Liberal Democrats on their foundation, and stood for Parliament in North Bedfordshire at the 1992 general election. He was twice elected in 1989 and 1993 as a County Councillor in Bedfordshire, and also in 1996 as a Borough Councillor in Bedford. He has not been politically active since then.

Book

In 2007, his book, ''The Political Punter - How to make money betting on politics'', was published by Harriman House.

Prospect Prospect may refer to: General * Prospect (marketing), a marketing term describing a potential customer * Prospect (sports), any player whose rights are owned by a professional team, but who has yet to play a game for the team * Prospect (mining ...

described it as an "excellent how-to guide".

Other ventures

He has also acted as a consultant for Betfair and written a column for them.

Family

Mike Smithson is married to Jacqueline Smithson and has two daughters and a son, Robert Smithson, who uncovered the Lernout & Hauspie fraud. His brother is the film and television producer John Smithson. His grandfather was Charles Smithson, mayor of Nelson, Lancashire.

References

1946 births Living people People from Bedford People associated with the Open University Liberal Democrats (UK) councillors Councillors in Bedfordshire Fellows of Queens' College, Cambridge {{UK-politician-stub