The excitement of the MMA isn’t restricted to the ring. Those of us who are not taking an active part in the fight can also get in on the adrenaline by placing a wager. The simplest form of this is simply predicting the winner. However, MMA betting, much like football betting, has lots of betting options that you can go for. These let you consider other aspects of the fight and enjoy it even more while standing a chance to make good money.
If you are just getting started on MMA or UFC betting, we’ll take you through the main types of bets that you should check out.
Moneyline Bets
This is the most popular form of betting in MMA as well as other sports, as it is quite straightforward. Basically, it’s all about picking the fighter who you think will win the fight. The bookmaker will assign both fighters odds that reflect what the bookmaker perceives as the chances of both. The favorite will of course have lower odds, which are given in negative numbers. The odds of the underdog are usually in positive numbers.
For example, you can have fighter X given –190 by the bookmaker. This means that you need to wager $190 to win $100 as profit. If fighter Y has odds of +150, you will get a profit of $150 if you place a bet of $100 and your pick wins. If you are just starting out, you can try moneyline bets before moving on to other types.
Method of Victory
There are only a few options when it comes to picking out the winner. But instead of worrying about if an opponent will pull an upset, you can instead go for how you think the fight will end, regardless of who wins. There are several ways of winning in MMA, and they include Knockout (KO), Submission (SUB), Decision (DEC), Technical Knockout (TKO), and Disqualification (DQ). When you select a particular fight, you will find all these as options.
Due to the many possible outcomes, Method of Victory bets usually have high odds as the risk is high. Before you place your bet, ensure that you analyze the fighting styles of both fighters. Take into account their strengths and weaknesses and compare this with their opponents. Also, ensure that you take into account how each of the fighters has won or lost most of their previous fights.
Round Specific Bets
Round-specific bets are unique to combat sports wagering, and they introduce quite an interesting dimension to sports betting. In these types of bets, you also don’t have to worry about the winner, but you will need to come up with an estimation of when the fight is going to end.
One of the options is usually whether you think the fight will go to the judges or not. There’s then an Over/Under bet, which usually involves the number of rounds you think the fight is going to last. For example, in a UFC championship fight, the sportsbook can offer the Over/Under line at 2.5 rounds. If you bet Over, you will win if the fight goes beyond the 2 minutes and 30-second mark of the third round.
Parlay Bets
If you’d like to take the level of excitement a notch higher, you can combine two or more bets in what are known as Parlay bets. These involve picking a fight and then betting on different options within a single bet. For example, you can pick the winner of the fight as well as the method of victory.
Parlay bets give you a chance to win more money by creating a high-risk, high-reward scenario. The big risk is that if you place a parlay bet, all the individual bets you placed within the bet must be true for you to win.
Fight Props
While the other types of bets above consider the fight as a whole, prop or proposition bets, make it even more interesting by considering individual aspects of a fight. For example, how many total strikes do you think will be thrown in the fight? Such bets are usually represented as an Over/Under line.
Other prop bets you’ll come across in MMA betting are Fight on the Night Bonuses and various performance aspects, such as the number of takedowns by a particular fighter. All these can help make fights much more interesting to watch.
