This article contains spoilers for Season 8, Episode 6 of “Game of Thrones.”

The hero, Jon Snow, had been revealed as the grandson of a slain king. Daenerys Targaryen had a loyal army and the kingdom’s only dragon. Sansa Stark had proven her guile and toughness, while her younger sister, Arya, had saved the day at the Battle of Winterfell.

Plenty of these leading “Game of Thrones” characters had seemed to have a real shot at ruling Westeros when the series came to an end on Sunday. But the wagering on who would prevail, which took place in offshore and European betting markets in the weeks before the finale, didn’t give them much of a chance.

Instead, bettors were partial to Bran Stark, a.k.a. the Three-Eyed Raven, who had been an important, but lesser, character in the series.

Bran was no mere favorite: The final wagers for him to rule the kingdom were placed at 2-to-9 odds on one major offshore betting site, which implied that the probability he would prevail was almost 82 percent.