Sunday brings us the Royal Rumble, which is a gold mine for gambling! Or so I’m told. As always, we’re just bringing you picks for entertainment purposes. I do know there’s tons of prop bets you can make on this event.

One popular one is to bet on which number entrant will win the Rumble. 27 was a popular number early in Rumble history, and still has the most winners with four, but we haven’t seen somebody win from that spot since 2001. 28’s had a better run in recent years, having three winners since 2005. 30 used to be jinxed, but we’ve seen three people win from there since 2007. Numbers lower than 10 have been bad luck since 2009, so you won’t like your chances there. Last year saw people win from 16 & 17, so I think we’ll see a little more variance this year. I’m thinking a low number wins the men’s match, while a high number wins the women’s.

Then there are prop bets on who will throw the most people out. On the women’s side, you gotta look at Nia Jax. On the men’s side? I’d go with Sheamus out of the people currently in it.

Will somebody break the overall time record? I doubt it, especially since Daniel Bryan shattered it at the Greatest Royal Rumble.

So there’s plenty of ways to have fun with the Royal Rumble. Let’s take a look at the odds on the matches, brought to you by BetOnline. Just so you know, some of these odds are fluctuating like crazy, so they might all be completely different by the time this gets posted. Good times!

WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship
Asuka & Charlotte Flair (+150) vs. Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler (-200)

no need to face them all alone
We can all swing together my oh my pic.twitter.com/aUDlmzCFlg

— ASUKA / 明日華 (@WWEAsuka) January 23, 2021

This was posted on Thursday with Nia & Shayna installed as the favorites for two reasons I can see. For one thing, they eventually wound up winning the clusterjerk on Monday that took about a half hour and three finishes to settle. For another thing, it’s probably time for Charlotte to get a singles title shot. Maybe with Lacey Evans? Sure, let’s make it a three-way. Charlotte, Lacey & Asuka, not Charlotte, Lacey & Ric.

Think I’d still bet on Asuka & Charlotte though, because I Don’t Bet Against Greatness. They’ll lose the belts later in the WM build.

WWE Championship
Drew McIntyre (-300) vs. Goldberg (+200)

"I ain't gonna need a frickin' cattle prod to do it! All I'm gonna need is one Claymore." 😮😮😮

Message SENT by @DMcIntyreWWE! #RoyalRumble @Goldberg #WWETheBump pic.twitter.com/I3KD83TudO

— WWE (@WWE) January 27, 2021

From the perspective of a viewer, I can’t see Goldberg winning this match. Drew’s been going pretty strong as champion for most of the past year, with a brief pause caused by Randy Orton. Who, by the way, is much more disrespectful to WWE Legends than Goldberg accused Drew of being. I’m still confused about that whole story point. Goldberg is in great shape for a fifty-four year old man and still has mainstream value, but the idea of him being a world champion gets more ridiculous by the year. Not like that’s stopped WWE the last two times he’s gone after a championship. Losing a championship to Goldberg didn’t hurt Kevin Owens or The Fiend in the long run, but it didn’t help them either.

There is some value in betting on Goldberg. I’ve noticed how much he’s being featured on WWE social media, and it wouldn’t be all that surprising if they put the title on him to set up some type of “dream match” at WrestleMania. If you insist on betting, he’s the choice. Personally, I’m hoping Drew gets the win, but there isn’t much value in betting on him.

Universal Championship
Roman Reigns (-1500) vs. Kevin Owens (+575)

8 days. pic.twitter.com/ytVWYOEWI8

— Kevin (@FightOwensFight) January 23, 2021

I’d like to tell you there’s a chance of KO scoring the upset here and taking Roman’s spot at the Head of the SmackDown Table. It’s going to be a fun match to watch, and Owens tends to thrive in matches where there aren’t a ton of pesky rules involved. I just don’t see any good reason to take the belt off of Roman Reigns at this point in time. Stay clear from this one, unless you want to do a fun prop bet.

Women’s Royal Rumble Match: Nia Jax, Charlotte Flair, Bianca Belair, Bayley, Mandy Rose, Dana Brooke, Peyton Royce, Alexa Bliss, Shayna Baszler, Liv Morgan, Ruby Riott, Tamina & others

Current Top 10 (+tie)
Bianca Belair: +150
Alexa Bliss: +300
Charlotte Flair: +400
Rhea Ripley: +550
Ronda Rousey: +700
Bayley: +800
Becky Lynch: +800
Sonya Deville: +1000
Shayna Baszler: +1400
Nia Jax: +2000
Paige: +2000

Last year @BiancaBelairWWE only had a few hours to prepare for the Royal Rumble…

She still threw out eight women and lasted over half an hour 😳

This year she's prepared, she's confident, she knows it's hers to lose 👀#RoyalRumble | BT Sport Box Office | January 31st pic.twitter.com/iC0T7MGzPV

— WWE on BT Sport (@btsportwwe) January 27, 2021

The fact that Paige cracks the top 10 tells you there aren’t a lot of options here. Nothing personal against Paige, I’m just not aware of when she was cleared to compete. Maybe that happens on the WWE Backstage show? Probably not, but I can only assume that some people are drawing that conclusion.

Bianca is a clear favorite here, and the possibility of Belair vs. Sasha Banks at WrestleMania is very tempting. Then there’s Rhea Ripley’s name, and even if she’s not officially in the match yet, her emerging to win the Rumble makes perfect sense to me. Ronda Rousey? Becky Lynch? I wouldn’t mind either one. Sonya wrestling would be newsworthy. We definitely can’t rule out Alexa doing some weird stuff.

I’m going with Rhea Ripley at that price. A bit of a roll of the dice there, but there’s good potential to make some money there. Watch her not appear while Ronda, Becky & Paige do.

Four To Look Out For
Lacey Evans: +2500
Peyton Royce: +2500
Toni Storm: +3300
Chelsea Green: +6600

Yeah, we’re just throwing some darts here. Not a lot of likely options outside the current top 10. Lacey is getting a push with Charlotte’s dad, which leaves Peyton with not too much to do. It’d be a quick way to heat Peyton up, if Vince McMahon is still high on her. Toni’s always going to make a list if I have a change to put her on one. Finally, I have no idea when Chelsea’s expected to come back, but I expect her to make a big impact when she does. Can’t think of a much bigger impact than winning the Royal Rumble.

Men’s Royal Rumble Match: Daniel Bryan, Bobby Lashley, AJ Styles, Randy Orton, Otis, The Miz, Jey Uso, Cesaro, Jeff Hardy, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler, Shinsuke Nakamura, Big E, John Morrison, Sheamus, Mustafa Ali, Edge & others

Current Top 10
Daniel Bryan: +100
Edge: +250
Brock Lesnar: +600
Keith Lee: +700
Big E: +900
Drew McIntyre: +1000
Shinsuke Nakamura: +1000
The Rock: +1000
Goldberg: +1200
Roman Reigns: +1200

EDGE DECLARES FOR THE ROYAL RUMBLE 😤

(via @WWE)pic.twitter.com/u7qNcqPCNO

— B/R Wrestling (@BRWrestling) January 26, 2021

Bryan has been the betting favorite for most of the time since odds were released. WWE has repeatedly informed us that he’s never won a Rumble match, which feels like they’re telling us that he’ll win this one. Bryan hasn’t had the best win-loss record lately, which also plays into the feeling that he’ll win the Rumble. 50/50 booking.

Edge shot up the board like a rocket after announcing his entry into the match, and it’s easy to see why. It’ll be the third Rumble Edge has made a comeback appearance for, and he won the first one back in 2010. He made it to the second runner-up position in his comeback last year, and one expects him to be around at the end this time around. Especially since his rival, Randy Orton, will likely be otherwise occupied.

Brock Lesnar is one of the names I could see as a possibility for the #30 slot that will be announced on WWE Backstage this Saturday night. Considering how well he did the last time he was in a Royal Rumble, he’d stand a good chance of winning it. This is all assuming WWE gives him enough money to leave his house. I won’t rule it out!

The rest of the top 10 consists of either long shots or championship match participants trying to get in the WM main event. We’ve seen Becky Lynch do it before, but it doesn’t happen as often as you might think. I think Edge is the smart pick because it’s the easiest way to give him something for WrestleMania. Keep an eye on that Brock price though, if it gets much lower somebody knows something.

Four To Watch Out For
Seth Rollins: +1400
Sheamus: +2200
Randy Orton: +4000
The Miz: +5000

We’ve been waiting for a Rollins comeback, and I’ve got a feeling it’s going to happen at the Royal Rumble. This one didn’t exactly take a rocket scientist to figure out, but a Rumble feud with his former Shield buddy would make some sense.

Sheamus won the 2012 Royal Rumble, as I’m well aware of. One figures that his alliance with Drew McIntyre would fall apart at some point, and there might not be a better time than the build to WrestleMania. Certainly not a better time for Sheamus, it’d be a high-profile feud on a high-profile show.

Orton was considered one of the favorites earlier this week, but his stock sunk like a rock within the last couple of days. I’m pretty sure it has something to do with this tweet from WrestleVotes:

Sorry for the lack of details here but still noteworthy IMO; had a brief conversation earlier with a source regarding the Men’s Royal Rumble match. They said quote:

“There’s a finish that scares the death out of me. And it’s legitimately getting heavy consideration” yikes.

— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) January 27, 2021

I could end up being wrong, but I read this as something stupid involving Orton & Bray Wyatt. As long as it results in neither man winning, and as long as we have an actual winner, I’m ok with whatever. That being said…Orton is still a threat to win this thing and I bet he gets closer to the top of the board before Sunday. So jump on this price if you can!

Miz at +5000 seems like a really good bet to me considering how much he’s featured on television. I don’t think he’s all that likely to win, but should he really be at the same value as Ricochet, Conor McGregor & Tommaso Ciampa at this point? Probably not. Of all the long shots, Miz seems the best bet.

There you have it! Good luck everybody, and don’t forget to send me 15% of the fake money you win! Or 15% of the profits you made off of GameStop, whichever is more.