Kurt Angle Favoured To Win The Andre The Giant Battle Royal

Betting on this year's Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal has commenced on the Sky Bet website and Kurt Angle has opened as a favourite.

The market, which opened within the last hour, had Angle as a 20/1 favourite. However, just as I was about to begin writing this post, I noticed the selection has dropped to 16/1.

What is worth pointing out is the fact that history has not been kind to the early betting favourites to win this match.

In betting on the first five Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royals, none of the early favourites have won.

It's a trend that could potentially work against punters sooner or later.

I didn't even consider Kurt Angle winning the battle royal before I came across the market. I don't know if I do now, but I can see why he's favoured considering the company has teased Angle could retire. A swansong win in the battle royal, by throwing out his current nemesis - and the third Andre Battle Royal winner, Baron Corbin - is something that would not surprise me.

I've placed a couple of long-shot bets.

The first is on Nia Jax (100/1) to play into her participating in the men's Royal Rumble match last month.

It looks like the company may have gotten cold feet about Jax wrestling men as an intergender match between her and Dean Ambrose - for an upcoming house show - appears to have been canned, so this is a gamble on my part.

Another 100/1 gamble is on the New England Patriots'  Rob Gronkowski winning it.

If you recall, Gronk was there when his friend - Mojo Rawley - won the battle royal a couple of years ago.

The Super Bowl winner hasn't announced his retirement as of the time of writing. I believe has until early March, when the new league year begins, to announce his intentions for 2019.

If he does call it quits, making a surprise appearance and winning the battle royal at Mania could be Gronk's first post-football sports media moment.