When I was growing up in a small town in Alabama, I met a man who was not what he appeared on the surface. By day, he was a shirt and tie wearing executive. Away from the office, he was a rabid wrestling fan, the type that foamed at the mouth yelling at the opponent and referee. In a sense, he was a wrestling character himself.
I once commented on my level of surprise he had such passionate reactions to things so obviously scripted. His response was a compelling argument: “Andy Griffith wasn’t actually a sheriff of a town in North Carolina but a lot of people watch that, too”.
He wasn’t wrong.
The WWE is interested in the legalization of betting on their high-profile matches. Reportedly, the organization will try to convince the Michigan and Colorado gaming commissions to allow limited betting on their product. It appears the limits would be in the actual matches available for legal betting and actual limits on the dollar amounts to be bet.
This suggestion alone feels like the wizard behind the curtain of my adolescence has now been exposed. As a youth, when greats like Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant and Macho Man Randy Savage were launching Wrestlemania, my friend group would passionately debate the reality of the matches. The thought that enemies like Hogan and the Iron Sheik would be working in concert for a scripted outcome was an affront to our sensibilities.
Fast forward a couple of decades and the WWE is making no secret of what once appeared to be one. They are saying straight forward that their results are predetermined. Their argument is that they can limit the amount of people aware of those results for long enough that legitimate betting can take place.
In fact, one suggestion has been the involvement of an accounting firm such as Ernst & Young. That firm takes Academy Awards results and protects those outcomes to the point the public can legally bet on them. Can the WWE, likewise, limit the amount of people aware of match results to the point gambling commissions are equally comfortable? That appears to be the main question under consideration.
Another question under consideration is this: Why would the WWE go to this much effort? The answer is a fairly obvious one, an answer all other non-scripted sports have discovered; people like to watch sporting events when they have money on the line. This isn’t a theory, it is a proven fact.
It was a slow roll for the NFL to so openly embrace the idea that gambling on their games helped the TV product. While their public injury report policy may have been instituted to make games more competitive, it certainly helped make more accurate odds too. The NFL waded into the shallow end of the gambling pool when it so publicly embraced fantasy football. Nobody pretended there wasn’t a gambling element to it but, the NFL could argue it was never endorsing that part.
What fantasy football showed was the passion with which people will consume the NFL’s televised product when they stand to make a financial gain. Fast forward by a couple of decades and the NFL has openly embraced the fact people can legally place bets on their games. Twenty years ago, that seemed a bridge too far for the NFL.
For the WWE, legalized gambling would increase interest in their product, it is as simple as that. The more ways you can create interest, the more people you have the potential to reach. Few have ever been better at generating interest and capturing an audience than current WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.
McMahon was in control during the time commonly referred to as wrestling’s boom period. He and current WWE CEO Nick Khan know that competition for attention will only increase. Anything that can increase the number of eyeballs watching, even incrementally, is a huge win.
The WWE is consistently delivering around 2.3 million people weekly on their Smackdown production on FOX. They add another 1.5-2 million weekly for WWE Raw on USA Network. Those numbers are significant but the exclusive rights with those two organizations are up in 2024. That means the WWE may be looking to legalized gambling on their matches to be a significant piece of their strategy for future growth.
It may be an uphill climb for wrestling bets to become mainstream. If they ever do, ratings will show the result of that. The more WWE can sell that vision, the more the marketplace will respond with media rights. It is a bold strategy, the odds may be low, but certainly a strategy worth betting on.
Ryan Brown is a columnist for Barrett Sports Media, and a co-host of the popular sports audio/video show ‘The Next Round’ formerly known as JOX Roundtable, which previously aired on WJOX in Birmingham. You can find him on Twitter @RyanBrownLive and follow his show @NextRoundLive.
