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Betting on WWE? What could possibly go wrong?
According to a report from CNBC, WWE is in talks with state gambling regulators in Colorado and Michigan to legalize betting on its high-profile scripted matches. Of course, the matches being scripted could raise obvious concerns, but WWE is working to take preventive measures.
WWE is working with the accounting firm EY, also known as Ernst & Young, to secure the match results in an effort to convince regulators that the results will not be leaked. The move could actually work, despite how crazy it sounds, because EY currently works with the Academy Awards to secure results and betting is currently legal and available for the Oscars on DraftKings and FanDuel.
If WWE betting is legalized, CNBC notes how it could impact not only betting on future scripted shows but also how it could impact WWE’s storylines moving forward.
If WWE succeeds in its bid to legalize gambling on matches, it could open the door for legalized betting on other guarded, secret scripted events, such as future character deaths in TV series. In discussions about how gambling on wrestling could work, WWE executives have proposed that scripted results of matches be locked in months ahead of time, according to people familiar with the matter. The wrestlers themselves wouldn’t know whether they were winning or losing until shortly before a match takes place, said the people.
For example, the WWE could lock the results of Wrestlemania’s main event months ahead of time, based on a scripted storyline that hinged to the winner of January’s Royal Rumble. Betting on the match could then take place between the end of the Royal Rumble and up to days or even hours before Wrestlemania, when the wrestlers and others in the show’s production would learn the results.
It would certainly be an interesting dynamic to WWE if legalized betting was allowed — and it would certainly make Royal Rumble pools more interesting — but will it actually happen? Only time will tell.
