"We expected brisker betting, quite frankly. But the latest data show the business isn't profitable for us," Sehodnya quoted the owner of a Kiev-based bookmaking agency as saying.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said only one in a hundred regular punters had bet on the upcoming vote.
His and other bookmaking agencies promise to pay 195 hryvnas ($39) for every 100 hryvnas ($20) bet on Viktor Yanukovych's opposition Party of Regions if the campaign's frontrunner garners less than 25.6% of the vote and $35 in the event it tops the threshold.
Opinion polls are banned from publication in the final fortnight of campaigning, but bookmakers will be taking bets through Election Day. They say, however, that they do not expect a flurry of betting activity, citing the high predictability of the March 26 ballot.
The Party of Regions currently tops approval ratings, and is predicted to win between 25% and 32% of the vote.
The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, led by the eponymous former prime minister, ranks second with the prospective result at 15%-19%. It is followed by Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov's pro-presidential Our Ukraine People's Union.
Analysts say the parties likely to overcome the 3% vote threshold also include the Socialist Party of Ukraine, the Communist Party, and Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn's election bloc, We.
