World Wrestling Entertainment attempts to legalise high profile matches
World Wrestling Entertainment is working on legalizing gambling for high profile matches in the United States. It is reported that the entertainment company is in talks with gambling regulatory bodies in the states of Colorado and Michigan to seek approval to start the process.
Safeguarding scripted matches
To back their plans, the promoter of the high profile sport that is still considered to be ‘niche’ has also engaged the services of global consulting firm Ernst & Young to ensure scripted match results would not be leaked to the public.
Keeping the scripted results confidential has always been a challenge for WWE. Previously the company worked with award shows such as the Academy Awards to keep results secret until the matches are aired on the media. To avoid leaks, it has been known that WWE also use a very strict rule of withholding results from the wrestlers until just before the start of each show.
A number of gaming operators such as Fanduel and DraftKings already offer a betting services for the Academy Awards Ceremony, but WWE is hoping that it can expand betting for major wrestling events on a larger scale.
WWE betting available on sportsbooks outside the US
Betting on WWE is already available on sportsbooks outside the US although expansion of the service to the US is keenly supported by most sportsbooks operators.
In a way the sector is already betting on professional wrestling in the US with All Elite Wrestling, a competition and events company has already signed up partnerships with DraftKings to allow fans in the US to bet on major wrestling matches and events. This scheme works in the different way though and rather than being allowed to wager money, players participate in a ‘quiz’ type game that offers winners a cash prize if they can predict the outcome of the match.
If the outcome of legaised betting does not materialise, WWE have a back up plan in the pipeline that would allow players to bet on a number of fictional storylines associated with each match.
Sportsbetting in the US
Sportsbetting is still considered to be illegal in a number of States such as California, Florida and Texas. The reaction from these States to allow gambling to take place for scripted matches still remains to be seen.
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment also known as WWE is an American professional wrestling promotional and entertainment company. It has recently branched out into other sectors including media and film and American football amongst other ventures and business partnerships and subsidiaries. The company licenses its concept and intellectual property to third parties to produce video games, toys and action figures. .
WWE was founded in 1953 as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation. It is today the largest wrestling promotor globally. It is available in more than 1 billion homes in 30 languages.
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