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.[1] 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.[2] He has been described as "perhaps the most influential person in the British political betting community".[3]