How Kambi Settled Its Individual Star Ratings O/U Markets For This Year's G1 Climax

For the past week, I've published daily posts where I've looked back at Kambi's markets for this year's G1 Climax to see how they were settled. In today's post, I'll cover some Wrestling Observer star ratings Over/Under markets that were released.

In these O/U markets, customers were given the option to bet on the star ratings performances of ten of the tournament competitors.

A line was given to each performer and customers had to guess whether they would have more or less matches that were graded five stars or above.

Before I look at all ten of the wrestlers, here are the star ratings results of all of the wrestlers in the tournament so you can follow along as I cover each performer. I have highlighted all of the 5 stars or above matches that each wrestler had during the tournament.

The first wrestler in Kambi's list was Hiroshi Tanahashi. 

The options customers were offered were '2 Or More' matches with five stars or above or '1 or Less'.

'1 Match or Less' was an 8/13 favourite when the market was first installed. As the tourney progressed, the odds for it fell and - by August 2nd - it had dropped to 1/7.

As you'll see in the guide above, Tanahashi did not feature in any matches rated five stars or above.

Jay White was the next name with a market. The bookies offered '1 Match or Better' and 'No 5 Star+ Match'. Both were offered at 17/20 to start off with, and customers sided with the option to bet on the under.

They ALMOST had it right. The G1 Climax Final - which had Kota Ibushi win the tournament against White - was given five-and-a-half stars in Dave Meltzer's review.

Jon Moxley's market was similar to the one for Jay White as the punters were given the option to bet on the former Dean Ambrose having at least one match with five stars or above or no matches with five stars or more.

This was one of the first markets to be settled as Moxley's night six bout against Tomohiro Ishii received five stars in Dave Meltzer's review.

Despite having some good matches in the G1, the closest KENTA came was a few four-and-a-half stars.

The winning selection turned out to be 'No 5 Star+ Match'. It was a 6/5 outsider initially, but - by August 2nd - it had dropped into favouritism.

Kazuchika Okada had a great tournament with the match of the tournament against Will Ospreay, which scored five-and-three-quarters. He also had five star outings with SANADA and Kota Ibushi.

Due to Okada's status as a star ratings machine, the bookies set his line at 2 Matches. The winning selection opened at 4/5 and was 1/8 by late-July.

Kota Ibushi had three matches rated five stars or above on his road to winning the tournament.

Just like with Okada's line, the bookies set Ibushi's at 2. The '2 Matches or Better' kicked off as an 11/20 favourite and was down to 1/10 before the market was closed.

Anyone who backed Shingo Takagi to have one match rated five stars or more would have had their bets settled shortly after Dave Meltzer's review of night fourteen was published. This is because he and Tetsuya Naito were given five stars.

As you can see, the '1 Match or Better' option was cut from 910 into 17/20 by July 9th. It's the only time when the option to bet on Takagi having a five star match or more fell. The rest of the adjustments went the way of him not having a five star match.

Takagi's LIJ stablemate and fellow five star recipient from night fourteen's contest - Tetsuya Naito - was the next person Kambi had on its list. 

The customers had the option to wager on Naito having '2 or More' or '1 or Less'. 

The Takagi match was Naito's only bout with five stars or above. Therefore, the winning selection turned out to be '1 Match or Less'. It was 6/5 to start off with and was 17/20 when it was last made available. 

Note how the '2 Matches of Better' selection had dropped to 17/20 from 3/1 before the last rounds of matches? This is likely because people may have banked on Naito either picking up a five star match against Jay White in the B Block finale or - had he made it to the tournament final - a highly rated contest with either Kazuchika Okada or Kota Ibushi.

Will Ospreay had two matches rated five stars or more in the tournament. The first was against Kota Ibushi on night five and the second was the match of the tournament against Okada, which was five-and-three-quarter stars.

The '2 Matches or Better' won out here. It started off at 11/10 and was 8/13 by July 22nd.

The final market was for Zack Sabre Jr. 

Kambi had the line set at one match and customers backed the over from the start. I was one of them as I felt ZSJ had a good chance of getting a highly rated match against Okada and - or - Will Ospreay.

My bet failed as the highest rating Sabre achieved was a few four-and-a-half star outings.

It looks like I may not have been the only one who backed ZSJ to have at least one five star match as the option fell from 8/13 to 7/20 between June 23rd and July 22nd.

Check back in tomorrow at 12PM BST for yet another G1 Climax 29 post.

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