The Ultimate Fighting Championship is primarily considered the apex of mixed martial arts. Fighters compete for the spoils of combat while bettors wager for the spoils of financial reward. Since MMA has become more mainstream and arguably more popular than boxing, the sport has resulted in the rise of UFC betting sites, or at least regular sportsbooks who take the sport increasingly seriously.
Fight Result Predictions
One of the most common MMA sports bet selections is to opt for a fight winner. One reason why betting on match results is so popular is that matches rarely end in a draw. As such, there is a black-and-white chance of whether a result selection will pay off.
Picking a fighter to win is pretty exciting because the UFC (and other promotions) typically pair up closely ranked combatants, resulting in competitive fights. Something that hasn’t always been true of boxing.
Fight Card Accumulator
Why just bet on a single match result? Many bettors will want to look for better odds by stringing multiple result predictions together in a single bet. This is often known as an accumulator and is commonplace for football fans, who usually put various bets on match results.
MMA bettors can also do this on UFC betting sites when they look at a fight card and predict multiple results. Hardcore MMA fans will often do this and watch the entire event with the prospect that their selected fighters will triumph and earn them a big payout. Combining multiple MoV bets and match result predictions in a fight card accumulator can maximize profits if the selections are correct!
Method of Victory Betting
Some MMA fans think they can predict not only the match winner but also how the victor will triumph. For example, if they study the combatants in the fight and notice that Fighter X has a penchant for submission victories, a bettor may wager that they will win by having their opponent tap out.
Conversely, they might opt for a knockout victory, a win on points, or even, in a rare case, by disqualification. As these selections are more specific, there is more margin of error – but the rewards are significantly amplified, making these wagers incredibly exciting for hardcore MMA bettors.
UFC Betting Partnerships
The UFC makes no apologies about pushing its viewers to bet companies on the fights. Dana White has secured multiple deals with different sportsbooks across the globe to promote MMA sports betting. One of the most notable partnerships is with DraftKings, which creates lots of social media content relating to UFC card selections to help facilitate both wagers and PPV buys.
In addition to that partnership, the UFC also works with Stake.com, one of the biggest sportsbooks in the Asian market; in the Middle East, they are aligned with Anker, while in select European countries, they are working with Betclic. These sites often produce enhanced odds in the build-up to crucial UFC events to push betting activity and encourage new customer sign-ups. In the United Kingdom, bet365 has a good working relationship with the UFC and an improved interface on the UFC market pages.
Non-Fight Wagers
Most of the wagers staked on MMA markets concern match results; however, there are some exceptions when the fanfare is high. If Conor McGregor announced tomorrow that he wishes to fight at UFC 320, the announcement would create hysteria in the MMA world, and sportsbooks would clamber to make money from it. Markets would become available where bettors could predict McGregor’s opponents. Other non-fight wagers can include predicting the location of a UFC event.
Other markets have become available to bettors for some bespoke cards. At the end of each UFC event, Dana White and his team announce several awards for the entirety of the card, including ‘Performance of the Night’, ‘Fight of the Night’, and ‘KO of the Night’. These awards can sometimes be wagered on, making for an exciting side bet.
Do Other MMA Promotions Follow Suit?
Other MMA promotions like RIZIN, PFL, Bellator, Cage Warriors, etc., often work similarly. Bettors prefer to bet on match results. However, given that these promotions typically work with lower-quality fighters, it is never as appealing for bettors to wager on non-UFC fights.
Interestingly, however, the PFL, the biggest competitor to the UFC, also works with DraftKings. Given that this competition works with a league and knockout format, it allows for other markets like betting on the end-of-season table topper, league standings, whether a fighter will go unbeaten throughout the season, etc.