The excitement, passion and intensity of the UFC is evident every time two combatants set foot inside the octagon. By betting on UFC bouts, you can live that same thrill of victory and agony of defeat alongside the world’s best MMA fighters.
No UFC fighter would step into the cage without first putting in extensive training to prepare for their bout. When betting on UFC matches, you should be doing just as much work in order to prepare for the moment.
If you do so, then you can also enjoy just as much success betting on the UFC as your favorite fighters enjoy competing in the UFC.
Let’s look at some of the keys to successful UFC wagering
1. Know your UFC Bets
Whether you want to wager straight moneyline winning outcomes, round betting, parlays, or exact method of finish, the UFC betting option you choose to play should be well researched in advance before any money is exchanging hands.
It’s best to determine one fashion of wagering to pursue and stick with that gameplan when betting on the UFC. A jack of all trades will be a master of none.
2. Study Fighters
Just as there are horses for courses in horse racing, there are matchups of fighters that will tend to work out better for one competitor than the other. By putting in time to learn the strengths and weaknesses of competing fighters, matchups that are favorable to one fighter over another will tend to become more apparent.
3. More Is Not Better
A typical UFC card will include up to a dozen or more bouts. You wouldn’t order everything on the menu in a restaurant. By the same token, wagering on all of the fights on a UFC card is a recipe for failure.
Pick out two or three plays that you really feel confident about. Bet those and only those, win or lose. Part of successfully betting is accepting that you will lose bets. Throwing in extra bets to try and make up for losses will only dig that financial hole even deeper.
4. Shop Odds
Getting the best odds possible on your UFC bets will only serve to increase the return on investment of your stake. Just as you’d shop around for the best price on a new car, do likewise with your UFC wagers. Find the sportsbook offering the best odds on the play you’re seeking to make and go with that book.
You can join as many New York online betting sites as you desire. Sites like Caesars and BetMGM offer lucrative signup bonuses to new players, so you can actually be playing your UFC wagers with house money.
Wagering on the UFC is incredibly popular but that’s the easy part. Successful wagering on the UFC, winning money steadily and consistently with your bets, that is what really matters in the long run.
How do you get that done? What should you be looking for when establishing a betting strategy that is going to produce winning wagers on the UFC?
Here’s a few tips to take under consideration:
5. Don’t Waste Wagers On Heavy Favorites
Some UFC bouts are anticipated to be lopsided outcomes. You’ll frequently see lines of -500 and -650 on the favorite in a UFC fight. That means oddsmakers are projecting with a high degree of certainty that the chalk isn’t going to be rubbed out in that bout. A fighter with -500 odds to win in the UFC moneyline is being given an implied probability of victory in excess of 83 percent.
Why would you bet that?
Even if as expected the favored fighter wins and you risked $100 on him, the profit on that winning wager would be $20. Is it worth risking $100 to make $20. No, it isn’t.
6. Pay Attention To Weigh Ins
Weigh ins are made for TV spectacles in which the opposing fighters mug for the cameras, act tough and often trash talk each other in anticipation of trading blows the next night inside the octagon.
Well, they are until one of the fighters doesn’t make weight. That means they’ve got about 24 hours to cut weight and get down to the number they need in order to be allowed to fight. That fighter is going to spend the day prior to the bout utilizing every method possible to drop weight. They figure to be tired, perhaps even dehydrated.
Their opponent, meanwhile, is literally getting fat. Once they’ve made weight, they can do whatever they want prior to fight time. In most cases, they add weight to give them extra power and strength entering the bout.
Which fighter would you be betting on in such a showdown? Statistics show that six out 10 fighters forced to cut weight lose their bout.
7. Sizing Up The Cage
There are two standard sizes for the octagons used in UFC bouts. They are either 518 or 746 square feet in diameter.
The latter octagon provides an edge to quick, elusive fighters who prefer to play a counterattacking style of bout. In the former size, there’s significant benefit to power strikers and expert takedown artists, because their opponent has less opportunity to avoid them.
8. Older Fighters Are Bad Bets
Sports in general is a young man’s game and this is especially true in the brutal and often barbaric world of UFC. In the UFC, many fighters, even all-time greats like Chuck Liddell and Anderson Silva, stayed around the game into their 40s and became a shadow of themselves in their latter years.
Liddell lost six of his last seven fights. Five of those defeats were by knockout and four within the first round. Silva was a winner just once over his last nine bouts.
Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash
