'Exactly' Bookends MITB 2018 Star Ratings Betting Results

WWE Money in the Bank 2018 was bookended by two exact results in Kambi's Wrestling Observer  Over/Under star ratings markets.

Sunday's pre-show bout, which saw the Bludgeon Brothers successfully retain the WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championship against Gallows and Anderson, received two stars in Dave Meltzer's review of the event which appears in this week's issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Kambi had set the Over/Under star rating line for the match at 2 stars, so those who may have backed the 'Exactly 2 Stars' will have bets settled in their favour once the bookies are aware of the results.

Going by the betting, it appears as though some punters had hopes that the match would go over the amount.

SD Tag Team Championship	Over 2 Stars	Exactly 2 Stars	Under 2 Stars
15/6 10AM	19/20	7/4	6/5
16/6 11AM	4/5	2/1	5/4
17/6 10:45PM	"	"	"

As you can see, 'Over 2 Stars' was cut from 19/20 into 4/5 by Sunday morning.

The men's Money in the Bank ladder match was given a line of 4.25. Anyone who backed the 'Exactly 4.25' at 9/4 are now holding winning bets.

One of the surprises of the night came in the WWE Raw Women's Championship match. The bookies set the line at two-and-a-quarter stars, but Ronda Rousey and Nia Jax earned three-and-a-half stars from the newsletter's editor.

As you can see in the table below, most of the bets were coming in on the match receiving less than 2.25 in the periods when the market was available.

Raw Women's Championship	Over 2.25 Stars	Exactly 2.25 Stars	Under 2.25 Stars
22/5 5:30PM	23/20	19/10	9/10
23/5 5:30PM	57/50	15/8	22/25
28/5 11AM	23/20	19/10	9/10
31/5 6PM	EVS	"	21/20
5/6 8PM	21/20	43/20	9/10
9/6 6:00PM	6/5	21/20	4/5
11/6 2:30PM	5/4	9/4	7/10
13/6 4PM	13/10	23/10	13/20
16/6 11AM	6/4	12/5	11/20
17/6 7:45PM	8/5	5/2	1/2
10:45PM	"	"	"

From a betting perspective, I was surprised that AJ Styles versus Shinsuke Nakamura received four stars. 

In a good way!

The line was set at 4.25. I thought the 'Under' had a good chance of coming in because of how underwhelming their previous matches had been. After the match, which I felt was the best of the night, I thought the winning selection would have landed in favour of the 'Over' or, in the very least, 'Exactly 4.25'. I lucked out on that one.

On Sunday, I published a post where I wrote about Dave Meltzer's thoughts on the lines. He mentioned that he had a feeling two of the lines were set low. His opinion turned out accurate.

He felt that - because the women had been preparing for their Money in the Bank ladder match - it had the potential to go over the three stars. Their match was awarded four stars.

The other match that stood out to the editor and Bryan Alvarez was the Intercontinental Championship match. It was set at two-and-a-half stars. The match went over by a star.

There were two other star ratings markets available over the weekend.

The first was a head-to-head where customers could bet on which of two matches received the most stars in the Observer's review of the event. The bouts were the men's Money in the Bank ladder match at 19/20 and the WWE Championship match at 23/20. A third 'Same Amount selection was also available at 9/5 for those willing to bet on both matching one another for stars. The four-and-a-quarter stars that the main event received beat AJ Styles .vs. Shinsuke Nakamura by a quarter.

The main event's 4.25 was also the winning selection in a market where people could gamble on the score that the match of the match received. The line maker had given 'Exactly 4.25 Stars' odds of 7/4 when he set up his market on Friday.

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