Who Will End Up on the Iron Throne? Game of Thrones Betting Heads into Final Straight

Posted on: May 7, 2019, 06:17h. 

Last updated on: May 8, 2019, 02:38h.

Philip Conneller @casinoorgphilc Read More
Expertise: Gaming Business, Regulation, Tribal Gaming.

Eight years and 70 episodes into Game of Thrones and — at last — things are starting to get interesting.

Game of Thrones betting
Bran Stark has once again become the favorite to sit on the Iron Throne at the end of the final season, but as the Three-eyed Raven with associated warg powers, he probably knows better than anyone when it comes to Game of Thrones betting. (Image: HBO)

We jest, because HBO’s rendering of George R.R. Martin’s fantasy juggernaut has been nothing if not consistently compelling — although there are actually people out there who will tell you it jumped the shark halfway through season 2 and they haven’t watched it since.

GOT has also always attracted a large volume of betting action, as fans speculate on the twists, turns — and deaths — of a show that has consistently departed from the accepted storytelling convention of not having your best-loved characters brutally decapitated on the battlements of Kings Landing.

True to form, Season 8, episode 4 saw one of the show’s best-loved characters decapitated on the battlements of Kings Landing, despite being one of the very few members of the dramatis personae never to have done anything mean to anyone ever.

As a favor to those who have not yet watched episode 4, we won’t name the character — but, seriously — it’s Tuesday now. Go catch up.

But with just two episodes left — that’s just two hours and 38 minutes to go after 69 hours and 44 minutes of television — the ultimate question of who will end up on the Iron Throne at the end of the series is becoming the subject of ever more frantic betting. So let’s take a look.

Down: Daenerys Targaryen

Danys’ odds have lengthened with most bookmakers since Sunday, possibly due to some sideways megalomaniacal glances towards Jon Snow after learning that his true lineage makes him a threat to her claim to the throne. Is the Mother of Dragons and the Freer of Slaves about to descend, improbably, into power-hungry insanity, just like her mad dad? (13/2)

Game of Thrones betting
Evil looks: Is Daenerys about to turn evil like her bad dad Aeyris Targaryen, aka “The Mad King?” The bookies think so because her stock has plummeted in the Game of Thrones betting markets since Sunday. (Image: HBO)

Up: Bran Stark

Bran has been one of the favorites for the Iron Throne since midway through the last season when several oddsmakers suspended the market due to a flurry of suspicious betting patterns on the youngest and creepiest of the Stark children, but he’s back at the top spot again this week.

For a series that has become a hacker’s delight and thus leakier than Stannis Baratheon’s fleet at the Battle of Blackwater, there’s always a sense that someone out there knows something we don’t. (2/1)

Up: Sansa Stark

Sansa has enjoyed a strong run of betting this series and, as with Daenerys, her movement in the betting markets is all down to the meaningful eyeballing. While Dany has been shooting off malevolent and paranoid glances left, right and center, purse-lipped Sansa’s have all been steely, resolute and wise. This once-ingenue looks like she is ready to kick some serious butt. (5/2)

Game of Thrones betting
Sansa is killing it in the regal department at the moment and it’s all in the optics. But does she have what it takes to be the last woman standing when all is said and done? (Image: HBO)

Down: Jon Snow

Despite Snow’s credible claim to the Iron Throne under his birth name, Aegon Targaryen, his stock slipped this week when he bluntly stated he had no interest in becoming King of Westeros. Also, Dany has been staring daggers at him since she found out she was his auntie. (3/1)

Down: Cersei Lannister

The reign of the incumbent Queen of Westeros is not expected to be long, peaceful, and glorious due to the fact that so many people want her dead — so many that there is a popular betting market on who will eventually kill her. Arya Stark is a favorite — and she doesn’t mess about — closely followed by either of her two brothers, Tyrion or Jaime.

Since she had Missandei decapitated on the battlements of Kings Landing — there, we said it — Cersei is now 25/1 against holding onto the throne, and by extension similar odds not to survive the series.