All bets are on!
Aspiring LA actor and game show veteran Brad Rutter is slated to win the top spot at tonight’s “Jeopardy!” mega tournament with the highest odds, according to the gambling information site US-Bookies.
The special “Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time” match, that pits the show’s three top winners against each other, will ultimately see 41-year-old Rutter clean house because of his status as the highest earner in “Jeopardy!” history, says the site’s spokesman Alex Donohue.
“No one has won more money on ‘Jeopardy!’ than Rutter, whose haul from the show is $4,688,436,” he wrote in an email to The Post. “He’s never lost to a human opponent.”
The game-show spectacular will air on ABC for three to seven weekday nights beginning Jan. 7 at 8 p.m.
Rutter’s only loss was to an IBM computer platform developed specifically to compete on “Jeopardy!” in 2011.
The site also predicts that James “Jeopardy James” Holzhauer, who won more in a single game than anyone else in “Jeopardy!” history with $131,127, will take second and Ken Jennings, who has the longest “Jeopardy!” winning streak with 74 games, will take third.
Jennings himself has said he believes Rutter will win.
“He’s the best I’ve ever seen,” Jennings told his area publication Seattle Refined of Rutter, the “Jeopardy!” top earner of all time, with total earnings of almost $4.7 million between regular-season games and tournaments. Jennings has taken home $3.37 million during his 15 years of “Jeopardy!” appearances.
The odds were calculated by international bookmakers who specialize in US entertainment markets and the data was based on betting markets where gambling on shows is legal, such as the United Kingdom.
However, Holzhauer’s youth, at 36, could inch him to the finish line first, writes Donohue.
“Holzhauer is the youngest so [he] may have quicker reflexes,” he added. He “also played most recently so may be less rusty.”
Rutter isn’t only billed to win the entire game, he’s also predicted to become the show’s next host, according to the same data set.
“While Alex Trebek himself has joked about having Betty White become the next ‘Jeopardy!’ host, many have speculated that his replacement will be one of the contestants in the ‘Greatest of All Time’ showdown,” Donohue explains. “If it does end up being one of these contestants, the odds point to it being Rutter.”
The forecast comes at a particularly difficult time as “Jeopardy!” host Trebek continues to publicly battle pancreatic cancer. Through it all, Trebek has said he has no intentions of giving up the gig.
Starting Tuesday on ABC, each one-hour brawl will consist of two 30-minute matches. Whoever wins the most money overall each night wins the evening, and whoever is first to win three nights of play will take home the first-place prize of $1 million. The other two get $250,000 each.
Rutter is no stranger to game shows — he previously hosted the Pennsylvania broadcast quiz show “InQuizitive” made for high school students. He later moved to LA to pursue acting.