MMA Betting: Best Bets to Make on Events
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No sport has been on the rise like mixed martial arts in the past decade. This has intertwined with the latest trend of sports betting in the United States and betting on the sport and the UFC has become extremely popular.
Unlike sports such as football and basketball, MMA's markets are pretty slim. There are, however, opportunities to expand your betting when it comes to PPV events, but these only come around once every few weeks.
Here, we’ll run through everything to note about MMA betting.
Outright Markets and Method of Victory
Outright markets are what they are in each sport: a simple pick of who you think will win. MMA betting also allows for draws to happen, but across all the sports out there, MMA sees a draw happen a lot less than most.
You are betting on either fighter to win or a draw in the outright markets. That’s it. As a result of choosing only one outcome and therefore upping the chances of it happening, odds are much lower in this one.
You can also bet on the method of victory for either fighter here, such as Conor McGregor to win by TKO/KO or Israel Adesanya to win by decision. These offer more value, and with adequate knowledge, this can make for a good bet.
Outright markets tend to be more popular in a parlay and not just a single bet.
Round Betting
As outright markets tend to have low odds for the favorite, bettors often eye up round betting. This is where you choose what round you think the fight will end and it subsequently increases the odds quite a bit, especially if you decide to pick the outcome of how that fight ends in that round.
This could be a Round 1 submission, for example, or a Round 3 TKO/KO. What’s more, if you can’t decide on who will win that fight in that round but fancy the fight to finish in a particular round, you can even choose to select just that.
Round betting in MMA betting can also be used in parlays, and adding just two or three of these into a parlay could create massive odds.
Significant Strikes and Takedowns
Betting on significant strikes and takedowns does not tend to be an option for a parlay, but it does allow for a unique market to bet on outside of picking the winner, method of victory and round betting. At the same time, these markets can be quite profitable with adequate research.
The UFC does a fantastic job at delivering statistics to their readers through their website and live TV coverage, and there are plenty of other resources out there to fill you with MMA betting knowledge, especially with us here.
If you’re watching a wrestler take on a striker, this market gets interesting. The chances of a few more strikes from the striking-focused fighter are more likely, and it’s usually expected that the wrestler will also take down his opponent quite a bit.
As the odds on these markets are usually focused on the history of the fighter in landing takedowns and significant strikes, odds can be low. On the other hand, they’re low for a reason, because sufficient research and the understanding of a fighter should be enough to determine a rough figure of how many strikes and takedowns may be landed.
Simply put, over time and with experience in MMA betting, bettors will begin to feel more confident in betting on this market.
PPV Specials
The UFC is on our TV screens practically every week. Every now and then, there will be a week break, but Fight Night cards or a numbered PPV event is likely each Saturday. PPV events, however, are way less common, but they still come around every few weeks without fail and, with it, bring a host of new betting options.
Because the fights are bigger and often better, sportsbooks sometimes open up more markets for bettors. These will usually be boosted prices on odds, such as Kamaru Usman winning by TKO/KO could be +280, which might get boosted to +350 before the fight.
Some sportsbooks also allow you to bet a lot deeper in a method of victory market, such as picking the exact punch style, kick, or submission. This could be picking Charles Oliveira to get another one of his famous rear-naked choke victories, or something like Francis Ngannou to win through another right straight.
These markets only tend to be an option for the biggest fights on a PPV card, but they are usually extremely high in value, as you are asking for quite a lot to win the bet.
Regular Specials
Although the PPV specials are also fun to back because of the high odds, there are regular specials that come out for each fight card. These usually look at the card as a whole, not individual fights, such as backing a certain amount of TKO/KOs in the night.
Sportsbooks don’t tend to offer that much in terms of specials for each fight card, but things like a certain amount of TKO/KOs, strikes, and takedowns usually take up the bulk of a sportsbook's thinking when it comes to offering a special for a Fight Night card.
Either way, there’s usually more than enough to consider.
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