{"id":5545,"date":"2019-05-16T15:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-05-16T15:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=5545"},"modified":"2019-05-17T03:18:34","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T03:18:34","slug":"final-episode-of-game-of-thrones-upcoming-on-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/sports\/final-episode-of-game-of-thrones-upcoming-on-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Episode of ‘Game of Thrones’ Upcoming on Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s hard to fathom a television world without Game of Thrones<\/em>. It has become such a huge part of the lexicon of television and popular culture worldwide that it’s hard to believe that it first premiered just over 8 years ago. The show was a hit from the first episode which aired on April 17, 2001 and at the end of the first season was bringing in 2.5 million initial viewers every week for the HBO broadcast. That was only the start, however, and the show has completely ‘blown up’ in terms of popularity not only in the United States but in just about every other country. By Season 3, the show was bringing in 4.97 million initial viewers a week. By Season 6, that number had grown to 7.69 million weekly initial viewers. Season 7 saw a weekly average initial viewer number of 10.26 million and with one episode remaining in Season 8 the average initial viewership is 11.67 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the seventh season began TIME Magazine ran a cover article in which they called Game of Thrones<\/em> ‘the most popular television show in the world’. Considering that since that article appeared they’ve added 5 million viewers a week in the United States alone it’s now among the most popular television shows ever on an international basis. One of the most amazing things about Game of Thrones<\/em> is the universality of it’s appeal. There’s no guarantee that any TV show or film will have cross cultural resonance. That’s why it’s not uncommon to see films draw huge numbers in the United States but not find traction in other countries. It’s also why that many TV shows end up being adapted (or in some cases ‘ripped off’) especially for audiences in certain countries. The popular TV reality show Big Brother began in Holland in 1999 and has been a success worldwide–but only because it’s been localized to individual countries with different versions airing in 54 countries and regions. Game of Thrones<\/em>–with no localized adaptation beyond the dialog language–now airs in well over 100 countries and has been called by several media critics ‘the first global television phenomenon’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The series will conclude on Sunday night and as it does many of the storylines that have facilitated Game of Thrones<\/em> betting<\/a> will be resolved. There are a number of proposition betting markets on the fate of individual characters, more specifically on whether or not they will survive until the series’ denouement<\/em>. Several of the main characters have markets that allow bettors to speculate on exactly how<\/strong> they will die. There are bet options on the viewership numbers and on the ratings awarded at websites like RottenTomatoes<\/em> and MetaCritic<\/em>. There are even betting markets for the last character to speak at the end of the final episode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most enduring Game of Thrones<\/em> betting market over the past few seasons has been the question most central to the entire narrative of the series: Who will rule the Seven Kingdoms at the end of the show? For much of the past two seasons, Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen have been the top choices of the betting public. Over the course of Season 8, however, the top choice has become Bran Stark aka the ‘Three Eyed Raven’ who is now a solid favorite over the rest of the field. Jon Snow and Sansa Stark are right behind. Daenerys Targaryen, however, has seen her ‘stock’ slip significantly during the current season and particularly after her actions in the series’ penultimate episode that aired last week (you won’t get any ‘spoilers’ from us!). Without getting too specific, last week’s show also demonstrated another component of Game of Thrones<\/em> popularity both as entertainment and as a betting topic. A high profile storyline that had been a big topic of both fan conversation and betting was conclusively resolved in a way that it had to be graded ‘No Action’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Game of Thrones <\/em>might be ending on television but it’s highly doubtful that fans have seen the last of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. While no specifics have been pinned down at this point, there’s every reason to think that the show’s rich and complex storyline will be supplemented with ‘prequel’ content either in the form of additional TV series or even theatrical films. The final episode of Game of Thrones<\/em> will air on HBO on Sunday, May 19 at 9 PM Eastern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay on top of the latest Game of Thrones<\/em> betting odds–follow BetOnline.ag on Twitter<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s hard to fathom a television world without Game of Thrones. It has become such a huge part of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5545"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5548,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions\/5548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}