Betting on the WWE Pro Wrestling Gains Traction at Gambling911

Written by :

C Costigan

Published on :

24 August, 2025

For years, none of the sportsbooks would offer betting on professional wrestling as events were often deemed as "predetermined", some would say "fake".

Oba Femi is revealed as the fifth man in the Iron Survivor Challenge: Deadline 2024 highlights ;

More recently, BetOnline decided to take the plunge. The Panama City-based gambling firm, founded in 1999 as Best Lines Sports, introduced wagering primarily on WWE nationally televised events such as RAW.

None of this really caught on with Gambling911.com readers.

"Even with the limited competition among sportsbooks in this space and the skyrocketing popularity of the WWE, we just weren't seeing much interest," notes Payton O'Brien, Senior Editor of the Gambling911 website.

Enter NXT Heatwave betting options posted August 21.

"Something happened here, " O'Brien observed. "People really have been seeking out odds on NXT Heatwave."

Thus far, interest is modest with a relatively low number of impressions (2511 over the more recent 24 hour period) compared to massively successful wagering events such as the Little League World Series (13386 impressions, more when multiple US teams were playing). Even high school football games have generated more traction, with 6239 impressions recorded over the last 24 hours).

"The fact that a WWE event is even registering is enough to pique our interest," O'Brien says.

UFC and certain boxing matches have long been a goldmine here at Gambling911. Pro wrestling still has a long way to go.

NXT Heatwave is a professional wrestling event produced by WWE for its developmental brand NXT, repurposing the historic ECW Heat Wave PPV name from the 1990s.

WWE NXT Heatwave started at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT on Sunday, August 24, 2025. The event streamed live in the U.S. on Peacock and internationally on Netflix.

Its ratings have been decent.

Episode Date: Tuesday, August 19, 2025, on The CW. This episode served as the "go-home" show setting up the Heatwave Premium Live Event scheduled for Sunday with the show drawing approximately 675,000 viewers, down from 728,000 viewers the previous week—a ~7% decrease, but up slightly from the same week in 2024 —+5.6%. The 18–49 demo rating was down ~6.3%.

While today's WWE fights are still considered to be predetermined, there are less of a guarantee for gamblers. This is evident in the odds appearing below. Oba Femi came in as the -300 NXT Championship Match favorite. But in past times, Hulk Hogan would have been a -2000 favorite versus just about anyone.

Odds were as follows:

NXT Championship Match

Oba Femi (c) -300 (1/3)

Je’Von Evan +200 (2/1)

NXT Tag Team Championship

DarkState -300 (1/3)

Hank Walker & Tank Ledger (c) +200 (2/1)

TNA Knockouts World Championship

Jacy Jayne (c) +110 (11/10)

Masha Slamovich -150 (2/3)

Ash by Elegance +300 (3/1)

Note: Slamovich opened as a -150 favorite but now Jayne is favored to retain her belt.