Betting markets reward Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, but punish Jeb Bush

After Wednesday’s night’s GOP presidential debate, the online betting markets are rewarding Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — with them running as No. 1 and No. 2 — as the most likely candidates to win the Republican presidential nomination.

Mr. Rubio leads Mr. Cruz 47-22 as the mostly likely GOP White House contender, said PredictIt, a political forecasting website. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who was once favored by the betting community to win the nomination, has fallen back to fourth place behind Mr. Rubio, Mr. Cruz, and real estate mogul Donald Trump in that order.

Both Mr. Rubio and Mr. Cruz had a formidable debate in Colorado — calling out media bias and confronting tough questions head-on. Mr. Bush, on the other hand, seemed to falter. In an exchange with Mr. Rubio where Mr. Bush called out the junior senator’s voting record, Mr. Bush seemed to be taken aback with Mr. Rubio’s retort.

“I don’t remember you ever complaining about John McCain’s vote record,” Mr. Rubio said. “The only reason why you’re doing it now is because we’re running for the same position, and someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you.”

Mr. Cruz drew one of the loudest applause lines of the night, when he took on CNBC’s debate moderators.

“This is not a cage match. You look at the questions: ’Donald Trump, are you a comic book villain?’ ’Ben Carson, can you do math?’ ’John Kasich, will you insult two people over here?’ ’Marco Rubio, why don’t you resign?’ ’Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen?’ ” Mr. Cruz said.

CNBC has been largely criticized for the way it handled the debate. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus tweeted, “CNBC should be ashamed of how this debate was handled,” and “I will fight to ensure future debates allow for a more robust exchange.”