(CBS New York/CBS Local) — Would you bet on WrestleMania? From the words of this old Daniel Bryan,”yes, yes, yes.”
Interest in sports betting is surging, as a growing number of states relax gambling laws to profit on a can’t-miss revenue stream. And it is not only traditional sports which are getting all the action. Sports entertainment is also becoming increasingly common option for online sportsbooks, with tens of thousands excited to plop down a few bucks in their favorite WWE Superstars, even though their destiny has been determined long before the match even starts. But it’s not as crazy of a concept as you might think.
Sportsbooks have taken prop bets on everything in the outcome of TV shows to winners at the Academy Awards, both of which have already been solved and kept under wraps for days or months prior to being broadcast. If anything, there’s a higher risk on gambling on professional wrestling, since strategies can change up until the minute wrestlers walk through the curtain. Sometimes, the end can even be altered mid-match.
Wagering on WrestleMania 35 is expected to be about quadruple that of a regular WWE pay-per-view, according to Adam Burns, sports book manager for BetOnline. The whole amount of money wagered Sunday is expected to be somewhere in the upper six-figure range, which is about the same as a mid-season NFL game. It is a nice amount for the Super Bowl of wrestling, but still paltry compared to the actual Super Bowl, which will see action into the millions.
The typical wrestling fan will bet around $50, and the maximum amount you can wager on a single match is only about $200, according to Burns.
“It’s more for people to have fun to wager , and they can tell their friends they really bet on WrestleMania,” Burns said.
The reduced limits could be raised the afternoon of this occasion, as oddsmakers become more comfortable with things, barring any last minute wild rumors surfacing. BetOnline actually employs a super fan of sorts to keep track of these backstage gossip and fix the lines accordingly.
But don’t expect the limits to be raised too much. The caps are in place in part to stop business insiders, as well as the wrestlers themselves, from cashing in.
“If the a couple of people who actually know who’s going to win are prepared to risk their job to get a couple hundred dollars, then we are familiar with this,” Burns concluded.
The whole operation is really intriguing to monitor. A few of the wildest rumors that pop up can wind up becoming prop bets. By way of instance, stakes are being taken on whether the newly retired Connor McGregor and Rob Gronkowski will look in this year’s Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal. The line on the UFC celebrity to win is currently +5000, while ex-New England Patriot, who made a cameo in WrestleMania two decades back, is fairing much better at +1000.
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