WWE’s move to try to get legalized betting on match results approved in the United States is being questioned by more than just fans.
As PWMania.com previously reported, CNBC’s Alex Sherman revealed on Wednesday that WWE is in talks with regulators in Colorado and Michigan about legalized betting on “high-profile matches.” The company is collaborating with EY (Ernst & Young) to ensure the confidentiality of match results in order to demonstrate to regulators that betting would not be impacted by results leaking before the matches take place.
Obviously, a lot of changes will have to be made if this goes through because it affects anyone who knows the results of the matches. A few years ago, someone in WWE would leak the results of PPV matches on social media with near-perfect accuracy shortly before the events began. To avoid this happening again, WWE will have to keep a lot of people – wrestlers, agents, and even the creative team – in the dark about match finishes until right before an event.
Dave Meltzer discussed the changes that would have to be made on Wrestling Observer Radio, noting that people are rolling their eyes at the idea.
“I don’t know if the people who are wanting to do this to get in with DraftKings and get sponsorship money, while at the same time kind of like screwing up the booking aspect of wrestling, really understand wrestling. Because they come from different…wrestling doesn’t really fit into the sports thing, there’s so many aspects that do, but most don’t,” Meltzer stated. “Just the vibes that I’ve gotten from people are just kinda like rolling their eyes, and just thinking it’s really…it’s not a good thing, but it still might happen. It may be one of those changes, and maybe they feel that this will raise the price (value of the company as they explore the possibility of a sale), because now there’s gambling and they can tell the people who they are selling it to that ‘we are going to have a big increase in popularity because gambling will now be allowed on these things’. Andy perhaps the buyers might be fooled…and maybe they may think that that’s the case. It’s uncharted water, it may make it more popular in some ways. But they can’t do predictable finishes 70% of the time, not all the time.”
Meltzer went on to say that if it goes through, it will disrupt how the business operates for both wrestlers and those in charge of creative.
“It really screws the main event talent a lot because they’re not gonna know where they’re going, and it screws the booker because he’s gonna have to book in a logical manner and an illogical manner at certain points in time to keep from being predictable so there you go.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
