TKO President Confirms WWE Will Not Enter Sports Betting Market

While the sports gambling industry continues to expand in the United States, WWE will not be joining it in the near future.

TKO President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Shapiro stated during an interview with CNBC on Thursday that legalized betting on WWE matches in the U.S. is not on the horizon. Reports from 2023 suggested that WWE was interested in legalizing bets on high-profile matches and had discussions with state gambling regulators. However, for this to become a reality, WWE would have needed to take significant measures, such as collaborating with a firm to secure match results in advance and ensuring that these results did not leak.

“Not happening,” Shapiro emphasized. “It’s not happening. We’re scripted. Look, years ago I ran Dick Clark Productions. We had enough challenge keeping the American Music Awards and the Golden Globe winners under wraps with an auditor that was there. We’re not going to be asking Triple H — Paul Levesque, who runs our creative — to keep his scripts so under wrap that we can start sports betting. It just doesn’t jive.”

Shapiro also noted that TKO is involved in sports gambling with the UFC and believes that the younger audience, particularly young men, enjoys the gambling aspect.

While WWE and AEW have engaged in partnerships with sports gambling companies, these have centered around free-to-play pools rather than traditional betting.