In the post, I shared the match odds I was able to follow before betting was suspended. As you'll see in the table below, Styles was a -1,000 favourite over Gunther's +550 when I initially came across the market a week last Wednesday.
You'll also notice Gunther's odds were the only decreases I witnessed in the period before the book was shut on this particular match.
Jimmy Shapiro, who sends out BetOnline's press releases, noted that Styles had started off as a -300 fave to Gunther's +200 and that 'bettors at BetOnline.ag have been hammering Gunther to win'.
The spokesperson reasoned that the punters were backing Gunther in reaction to the news of AJ Styles independently trademarking a couple of monikers to use within the wrestling business leading some to see him setting those up to work outside of World Wrestling Entertainment.
Shapiro didn't mention another possible reason why the sportsbook's clients might be siding with Gunther over Styles.
Following his match against Styles on last week's Saturday Night's Main Event, Shinsuke Nakamura wrote a blog post about his friend and mentioned that - sometime in 2025 - Styles told Nakamura the Phenomenal One eyed the 2026 Royal Rumble as the venue where he would retire from WWE.
That journal entry was later pulled.
Going by where the odds were when I began following the market, if Styles opened at -300 then the early bettors must have sided with the favourite early in the betting for the selection to be at -1,000 by the evening of January 21st.
Which leads me to something which was not addressed by BetOnline.
In yesterday's post, I pointed out that Gunther's selection has also been pulled from BetOnline's outright winner market for the Rumble.
The last sign I have of Gunther in the market is from Wednesday of this week. At that time, he was priced as a +200 second-favourite - a position he had held since falling in from +1,400 in the opening days of 2026.
I have asked whether BetOnline has suspended Gunther from the market because they've corelated Gunther winning against Styles would also mean he would end up scoring a brace by outlasting the field in the battle royal later in the card.
As pointed out yesterday, it would be more logical for Gunther to somehow lose against Styles and then regain his heat by winning the Rumble later in the night. Of course, he could do both, but the former scenario makes the most sense if the plan is for Styles to continue his active career in WWE and for Gunther to be in one of the title bouts at WrestleMania.
European bettors can still find markets for the Styles .vs. Gunther match. For example, Sky Bet has Gunther favoured at 1/2 (-200 US) with Styles priced 11/8 (approximately +138 US).
Gunther's name still exists in the Rumble winner markets as well. He's generally found in fourth place at odds of around 9/1.
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In a side note, I was forwarded the following image from a friend of the blog overnight.
It's not abnormal to see this happen with betting websites when a selection is backed. However, something similar did occur with Jey Uso's selection on the Friday night heading into the 2025 Royal Rumble.
The bet/s have not affected Perez's odds. The selection has returned back to its position in the +6,600 range.
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On Smackdown, an on-screen graphic that is used during the Royal Rumble match briefly popped up on screen.
The display showed Bron Breakker as entrant number one.
If this was an unintentional mistake (this could be a plant to further the Adam Pearce .vs. Heyman/The Vision storyline), it suggests that the plan was for Breakker to start early (obviously!). I have checked the 'Most Eliminations' market on the BetOnline website and the graphic has caused Breakker's odds to oust the most participants to be halved from +400.
It's interesting to see Breakker given that number, if true, because that would have meant he'd have shared that spot with his uncle - Scott Steiner - who was number one for the 1994 Royal Rumble.
Breakker's father - Rick - entered in position three.
Oba Femi remains a favourite in this particular market.
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