Betting on Wrestling
 

I understand betting on Wrestling isnt legal right now, but is it a thing that happens around the world outside say side bets with friends?

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/08/wwe-...h-results.html

Im kind of fascinated by this as in how do you keep results secret. As a booker or book maker you could make a packet just by throwing out the odd curveball result. I wonder if it would impact show quality when you have to consider betting outcomes i.E. would the product be harder to predict.

Fascinating and somewhat mad idea in my mind.

You can already bet on match results in the UK. Roman is 33/20 to win, Cody is 21/50.

Yeah I've bet people on wrestling before. It's kinda easy money when you read the sheets and they don't. Sure occasionally the whole "plans change" thing would cost me a bet, but I won way more often than not. I've won a lot of money on the rumble matches in particular, especially when Orton won a few years ago.

I guess the point is that if they can't keep the results secret then this is gonna get scandalous.

Also don't tell the homies about the sheets.

Tbf, the payouts for the favourites are awful. You’d need some swerve booking to make decent money. You might be able to make a bit of money off mania as they historically don’t book the fairytale ending for everyone. But you’d expect wins for Cody, Rhea, Theory, Brock, Sami/Owens. I could see Belair retaining.

A few years ago when the Rumble was still a reason to have a wrestling watch party, we’d draw names from a hat and do betting pools. Outside of that, no.

The idea of betting on wrestling being legal is just ridiculous though. I remember years ago on some UK betting site, you could accurately predict the winners of a WrestleMania by the odds taking a crazy turn just before the show started. So scummy.

I think the whole legalize part of it is so WWE can legally get a cut of that gambling money. Making money is their sole motivation with any move they make.

I remember this for WM31. Everyone assumed there was no way Sting was coming in just to lose his debut match and then like an hour before the show Triple H suddenly became the betting favorite.

Also for the 2017 Rumble, there was not one single, solitary hint on TV that Orton would win the Rumble. He was just another guy announced for the match. He wasn't positioned as a favorite, he working in the Wyatt Family, and Bray wasn't even the champion at the time. Yet he was the heavy betting favorite for a good 2-3 weeks before the show.

Betting sites are pretty close to being spoilers.

The main one I remember was Zack Ryder suddenly going from virtually no chance to a huge favorite to win an 8-man ladder match at WrestleMania just before the show started.

I have a little gambling success on sports, I feel like this is even more common sense in a lot of cases however. Interesting to see odds have skewed heavily in the past.

Despite me thinking I could pick winners on wrestling with some success the "carnyness" of it all means I probably wouldnt try to often if it was legal where I am. It feels very open to abuse.