Jericho To Win MITB 2016?

Is Chris Jericho going to win this year's Money in the Bank ladder match? I don't know. What I do know is there are a number of punters out there hoping he does.

As noted earlier on today, the Bovada.lv and Bodog.eu sportsbooks have taken their Money in the Bank 2016 outright winner odds off the board. They had been available from Tuesday March 29th right up until late yesterday or early today depending on where you live.

A visitor to the blog first brought my attention to the fact that the markets had been removed and mentioned that he had placed bets on all of the runners that are confirmed for the match. The visitor was particularly interested in how Jericho's odds had changed.

Jericho was installed at +7,500 on the aforementioned day in March. These odds took a tumble somewhere between April 12th and May 1st as, between that time, the traders shortened him into +3,300.

As I noted earlier on today, this cut in price came a little over a week after Jericho defeated AJ Styles in one of the matches at WrestleMania 32 but before his recent losses at Payback and Extreme Rules. I figured that the drop was potentially customers reacting to Y2J's win at Mania.

Look at the table below, it'll show you all of the wrestlers that appeared on the Bovada/Bodog boards and how their odds went from day one right up until last night.

The six confirmed runners appear in red.

Click on image to expand

Whenever I go through betting odds every month, I use a number that helps me to strengthen my belief that smart money has landed. It's a  'Definitely Smart Money!' gauge, if you will. The 4,200 point swing beats that number. However, I am once again reluctant to jump aboard the smart money train just yet. There are reasons pointing to and against the idea that Chris Jericho's price drop is due to inside knowledge.

As a wrestling fan who dabbles in wrestling betting, I would never have given Chris Jericho a chance of winning the briefcase if I had been asked weeks ago. I would have thought of people like Kevin Owens, Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose, Finn Balor and many more before arriving at Chris Jericho. This isn't a knock on him, it's just that his role is different nowadays and I would have expected the company to go with someone who will be around for the long-term. Unless, of course, there's a plan here for Jericho to do something with whomever ends up being the second world champion (if that's where the plans end up).

The fact that Owens' and Ambrose's odds hadn't moved when numerous others went one way or another is also quite surprising to me. If fans were going to bet, I am confident these two selections would have moved down. Instead, they remained stationary.

One thing to counter the idea that Jericho's shift is related to smart money is to acknowledge that his odds were the highest on the board. Therefore, the traders would have had to adjust the lines accordingly and that may be why it seems he has seen a high volume of wagers in his favour.

With all that said, his odds would have stayed at +7,500 or been moved out had he not been backed at any point over the near to two months the market was available. I cannot argue that he has seen interest.

What ever this is, it'll be interesting to see how Jericho is booked all the way through to - and including - Money in the Bank weekend. The punters with Jericho betting slips will be just as keen to see how things pan out as all of us.