Betting on any sport to make money, no matter if its baseball, boxing or MMA, takes more than just a lucky guess, but an actual understanding of what you’re doing. This is why betting guides, and understanding events you can bet on, can be a useful tool in helping you learn what bets are available and your best odds.
That being said, is MMA gambling profitable? Sure it is! While it’s not typically as popular a betting market as boxing, the potential rewards that mixed marital arts offers bettors can sometimes be far greater.
The most ideal way to make money when gambling is to make selections that are more informed than the majority of the other bettors and bookmaker. For boxing, this means getting a leg up over traders who have more than a hundred years of historical analysis to sift through as well as the balancing factor of a huge number of bettors.
On the other hand, in MMA betting,the historical outcomes and statistics to investigate are much lower than boxing. This puts bettors on the same playing field as bookmakers. In other words, if you mange to use the statistic more effectively than traders, your betting will result in better outcomes.
What statistics should be used? As many fighter statistics as possible including: record, height, stance, reach, age, striking accuracy, takedown average, takedown accuracy, takedown defense, etc.
That said, there are cases when UFC fights can be entirely unpredictable, like last year’s UFC Fight Night 61 in Brazil, when the 10 betting favorites – including Antonio Silva and Edson Barboza – all lost, leaving one lucky fan winning an impressive $48,291 for betting a single dollar on a nine-leg parlay, selecting the underdog in each fight.
Just like big MMA events like the Ultimate Fighting Championship, big boxing events attract a lot of bettors across the globe and result in a lot of betting options. For instance, last year’s Super Bowl of boxing, which took place in Vegas in May between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, had tons of prop bets, including either fighter being knocked down once or coming back to win the fight, the total number of knockdowns, punches, etc.
In short, as is the case with boxing, you’ll find that there are many UFC betting options. While knowing the stats can help you make smart choices that lead to big wins, there are also times when betting on the underdog pays off, too.