Lesnar's Win And How It Settled Some Betting Markets

Brock Lesnar's Universal Championship triumph over Braun Strowman at WWE Crown Jewel last Friday resulted in a few long-standing betting markets finally being settled.

Following this year's WrestleMania, the Kambi oddsmakers published Conqueror specials where customers could place bets on the timeframe when Braun Strowman next suffered a decisive loss inside a singles match within a WWE ring. As well as picking the period of Strowman's next defeat, customers could bet on the person who benefited from the decision.

Customers were given eight time-frames when the market was first installed in early April. The winning selection was the one that covered 'Between the day after SummerSlam, but before Survivor Series'. You can see by clicking the table below that it was initially available to punters at 9/2 and its best price was the 13/2 later that month (ironically on the day of a Strowman win in Saudi Arabia).

The odds for Strowman to suffer a singles loss before the Survivor Series was cut from 13/4 into 5/4 between October 17th and 24th. It then remained at 5/4 right up to a week today when the market was taken down never to be seen again.

Brock Lesnar was obviously the 'conqueror'. He had opened at 3/1 on April 8th. The highest price he was available at over the times that customers could wager on him was when he was up at 5/1. Once again, this was on the date of the Greatest Royal Rumble (April 27th) and was where fans were under the assumption that Lesnar would drop the Universal Title to Reigns in the cage match. Instead, Lesnar won and his stay in WWE was extended.

The last price I have for Lesnar was the EVENS that were offered on the Monday before the event. The favourite at the time of closure was Drew McIntyre who had dropped to 3/4 after being up at 12/1 in July.

One market that didn't settle on a winner was Kambi's 'Universal Champion After Roman Reigns' market that was published in the days following Roman Reigns' eventual title win over Lesnar at SummerSlam 2018.

Per the rules of the bet, the market was declared void due to the title not changing hands in the ring. Sky Bet - on the other hand - still had the market running right up to the day of the show. The last price I was able to catch on the eventual winner was 5/2 half an hour before the PPV started on Friday afternoon.

As you can see by clicking on the image above, the highest price on Lesnar succeeding Reigns for the title was the 12/1 on offer the day following SummerSlam when the majority thought Lesnar wouldn't be back in WWE for some time.