It serves the online sportsbook Bovada right for even accepting wagers on pro wrestling.
Bovada allowed gamblers to wager on WWE WrestleMania XXX, in which the main event was the Undertaker going for his 22nd straight win in WrestleMania events against lightly regarded and former UFC star Brock Lesnar.
According to Fox Sports' #Buzzer, "In a stunning turn of scripted events, heavy underdog Brock Lesnar ended the Undertaker's winning streak and made bettors a lot of money."
Fox Sports reported Monday that Bovada sportsbook manager Kevin Bradley said his site took in about 1,000 but that those who bet on Lesnar to pull off the huge upset outnumbered the Undertaker bettors by 8-to-1.
Forbes added that an uncanny shift in wagers on Lesnar's side took place just prior to his match with the Undertaker.
"Undertaker opened at -3000; in other words, you'd need to bet $3,000 just to win $100 on an Undertaker victory," Forbes explained. "That line later moved to -4000, and by Saturday afternoon was at -5000. Clearly nobody was expecting a loss to Lesnar, and Bovada wasn't making it easy for bettors to win money off the 'sure thing.'
"But by 6:15 Sunday night? The Undertaker money line had surged the other way to -1200. The only explanation is that Bovada had a whole lot of action going Lesnar's way. The line would float back to -3000 by 6:30, then down again to -2500 at 6:50.
"Lesnar is something of a journeyman who shows up and disappears throughout the year, and not quite the expected choice to end a streak more than two decades in the making. And yet some gamblers clearly knew this was the year. There's no way to know for sure if they had inside information, but it's yet another piece of evidence why betting on an event with a predetermined outcome is not the smartest use of money."
Perhaps, that's the most stunning part of the story - that not only would gamblers bet on a predetermined event, but that a website would actually allow bets on a predetermined event.
Or did Bovada know that and is just setting up gamblers for the future events?
Should it be legal to gamble on events with predetermined outcomes? Comment below or tell us @SportsWN.
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