A Beginner’s Guide to Wrestling Betting

WWE Wrestling Basics

The WWE has been running since the early 1950s and it is currently the largest wrestling promotion in the world with over 500 events a year. As mentioned, the fights are actually shows, with everything scripted. Strictly speaking, a wrestler wins a match by holding their opponent to the mat for a count of three by the referee.

However, in order to add narrative and drama to the sport, there are many “unexpected” events, such as cheating wrestlers, and fighters turning up to try to win an match that they are not part of. Despite this, every match and season ends with a definitive winner.

Because of the way the sport is structured, there are no real rules that you have to be aware of when placing bets. However, you should be aware of some important terminology:

• Buried – When a wrestler consistently loses and is given a negative storyline within the script. Often, it can be the result of real world problems between the wrestler and management.
• Blowoff – This is the final match of a feud between two wrestlers.
• Clean Finish – This is when a match is won without any cheating, interfering or disqualification. Usually they end in a pin or submission that is uninterrupted.
• Dirty Finish – This is when some form of cheating or interference, which happens regularly in WWE, ends a match.
• Heat – This is when the crowd dislike a wrestler and boos them. It may also be used to refer to issues between two wrestlers inside or outside of the ring.
• In-Ring Psychology – This is about the structuring of the match and storyline. It is very important when placing bets as the writers pay a lot of attention to it. While the sport is full of surprises, the surprises are believable and fit into a wider story line.
• Jobber – This is a wrestler who regularly loses and whose role is to build up his opponent’s resume. It is important to be aware of these wrestlers so that you never bet on them.
• Push – This is the opposite of being buried. It is when a wrestler begins to win numerous matches and is given positive storylines.

When it comes to betting, there are many events that are popular. There are three main WWE television shows, Monday Night Raw, SmackDown and NXT, and often markets are offered for these.

Monday Night Raw, often called Raw, is the WWE’s flagship program and brand. There are five championships that are competed in the Raw brand: WWE Universal Champion, WWE United States Champion, WWE Raw Women’s Champion, WWE Cruiserweight Champion, and WWE Raw Tag Team Champion.

WWE SmackDown has been on television for more than twenty years. It is designed to complement the Raw show and there are four championships contested: WWE Champion, WWE Intercontinental Champion, WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion, and WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champion.

WWE NXT is a developmental division for up and coming wrestlers. It too has four championships: NXT Champion, NXT Women’s Champion, NXT Tag Team Champion, and WWE United Kingdom Champion.

These are far from the only WWE events you can find markets for. You may also be able to bet on the SummerSlam, WrestleMania, Money in the Bank, Royal Rumble, Extreme Rules, Hell in a Cell, and Backlash.

Betting on WWE Wrestling

One of the best things about betting on WWE is that the betting markets tend to be very simple in comparison to other sports. It is rare to find complicated betting markets that take effort to understand.

In fact, very often you will only find the Straight bet on offer, which is simply a bet on which wrestler will win the match, tournament or the entire season. You will be presented with the entire list of wrestlers and their associated odds. Occasionally you may see some unexpected names in the betting markets, but this is because people have a habit of turning up ‘unscripted’ in WWE. If there has been speculation about something happening, then very often there will be odds available on it.

You may also find a number of basic proposition bets available on the various participants. These are not consistent from one match to another, but they are always worth looking at. Here are some of the more common ones.

First-Time Winner

The First-Time Winner bet is won if the winner of the event has never won a wrestling match before. If you have been following the sport and you think that the storyline is building up to a particular person landing their first win, then it can be a fun bet to place.

Longest Ring Time

The Longest Ring Time bet is on which of the two wrestlers will spend the most time in the ring during an event. It is a bet that can be a lot of fun, especially due to the unpredictable nature of the sport.

First to Appear

The First to Appear bet has absolutely nothing to do with who wins or loses a match. It is simply a bet on which wrestler will make the first appearance during a show.

Appearance Bets

The Appearance Bets are proposition bets that are based upon whether a certain person or a type of person will make an appearance during an event. It can cover many different categories such as female contestants, UFC fighters, retired wrestlers and even celebrities and politicians. For example, you could place a bet on a female wrestler participating in the Royal Rumble, and if one does, then you win the bet.

Bout Outcome Bets

The Bout Outcome Bets are a type of bet in which you are predicting how an event will end. This doesn’t mean that you are picking which wrestler will win, you are betting on how any of them will win. For instance, you could bet that all three undercard matches end via disqualification.

Elimination Bets

Elimination Bets are a category of proposition bets that are usually only offered during multi-person bouts, such as the Royal Rumble. They are bets on which of the wrestlers will eliminate the most other contestants. It doesn’t have to be the winner of the event, just who will cause the most eliminations.

You may find many more types of bets to place, so it is always worth exploring them all carefully as you never know what might be on offer. Furthermore, you may also find live betting markets. These allow you to bet on an event as it happens. The markets and the odds are updated in real time as the event progresses, and those with a sharp eye may spot some fantastic betting opportunities.

What to Consider When Betting on WWE Wrestling

While WWE may be scripted, it doesn’t mean that you can’t adopt certain strategies when planning your bets. Just as with any sport, you need to analyse WWE to try to spot trends and make educated predictions. When betting on a regular sport, such as football, you would look at previous results and team news to try to make predictions, and this is no different when it comes to WWE.

However, the trick is knowing what type of research you should be carrying out. In a scripted situation, there is no point in trying to analyse the individuals’ skills, as they will have no impact on the outcome. Rather you need to look at the history of the script and see how that can be applied to the current situation.

For example, you should look at what writers have done in the past, how they are treating certain characters, and what kind of surprises they like to introduce. The writers of WWE scripts are just as human as the rest of us, which means that the outcome will not be completely random. Furthermore, the writers want to entertain and they are unlikely to be thinking about the betting public.

This means that if you think a certain outcome will be particularly exciting, then there is a real chance that it could happen, as it will be better entertainment value. You should also consider what stage the season is at and whether big surprises are likely at that point. In other words, you need to try to find the patterns of the writers. There is a huge amount of material available online, including blogs dedicated to WWE, and the more information you can gather, the better your chances will be of placing successful bets.