As the polls closed last night, Ladbrokes was offering 4-1 on an out vote, with its betting suggesting that a remain verdict was a 90% certainty.

But with much more money bet on remain than leave, the bookies are likely to turn a large profit.

In a candid statement, Ladbrokes' head of political betting Matthew Shaddick said: "The truth is that bookies do not offer markets on political events to help people forecast the results. We do it to turn a profit (or at least not lose too much) and in that respect, this vote worked out very well for us.

"Nobody at Ladbrokes' HQ will be criticising the predictive powers of our odds, they'll be looking at the money we made."