• About Us / Contact
  • Responsible Gambling
This site contains commercial content
SportsHandle
  • US Sports Betting
    • Arizona
    • Arkansas
    • Colorado
    • Connecticut
    • Delaware
    • Illinois
    • Indiana
    • Iowa
    • Kansas
    • Louisiana
    • Maine
    • Maryland
    • Massachusetts
    • Michigan
    • Mississippi
    • New Jersey
    • New Mexico
    • New York
    • Ohio
    • Oregon
    • Pennsylvania
    • Tennessee
    • Virginia
    • West Virginia
    • Wyoming
  • Pending States
    • California
    • Florida
    • Georgia
    • Missouri
    • North Carolina
  • Canada
    • Ontario
    • British Columbia
    • Alberta
  • Sportsbook Apps
    • FanDuel
    • BetMGM
    • Caesars
    • PointsBet
    • BetRivers
  • Tools
    • Sportsbook Bonuses Explained
    • Sports Betting Revenue Tracker
    • Sports Betting Podcasts
    • Partnership Tracker
    • Expected Value
    • Sports Scores And Odds Apps
    • Sports Betting Twitter
  • News
No Result
View All Result
SportsHandle
  • US Sports Betting
    • Arizona
    • Arkansas
    • Colorado
    • Connecticut
    • Delaware
    • Illinois
    • Indiana
    • Iowa
    • Kansas
    • Louisiana
    • Maine
    • Maryland
    • Massachusetts
    • Michigan
    • Mississippi
    • New Jersey
    • New Mexico
    • New York
    • Ohio
    • Oregon
    • Pennsylvania
    • Tennessee
    • Virginia
    • West Virginia
    • Wyoming
  • Pending States
    • California
    • Florida
    • Georgia
    • Missouri
    • North Carolina
  • Canada
    • Ontario
    • British Columbia
    • Alberta
  • Sportsbook Apps
    • FanDuel
    • BetMGM
    • Caesars
    • PointsBet
    • BetRivers
  • Tools
    • Sportsbook Bonuses Explained
    • Sports Betting Revenue Tracker
    • Sports Betting Podcasts
    • Partnership Tracker
    • Expected Value
    • Sports Scores And Odds Apps
    • Sports Betting Twitter
  • News
No Result
View All Result
SportsHandle
No Result
View All Result

MMA And Sports Betting: A Match Made In Heaven — And Las Vegas

UFC and other promotions such as Bellator have long embraced and understood the engagement value of sports betting

Brett Smiley by Brett Smiley
March 8, 2019
in Sports
UFC 235-Lawler vs Askren

(Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

At UFC 235 this past weekend at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, veteran welterweight fighter Robbie Lawler nearly pounded former Olympic wrestler and 2/1 favorite Ben Askren into a first-round TKO victory. But Askren, making his first UFC appearance, managed to survive Lawler’s early onslaught of head and body shots, and about two minutes later, at 3:20 in the first round, completed the comeback, ending it with a bulldog choke.  

Respected referee Herb Dean saw Lawler’s arm dangle limp while he attempted to extricate himself from the choke, causing Dean to stop the fight in what goes down as a submission win for Askren. While controversial and unfortunate for Lawler (and his backers), it was understandable, and the popular Lawler quickly turned from aggrieved to praising Dean and expressing his understanding (transcript here.)

The NFL is the king of U.S sports betting, but mixed martial arts offers something different, in some ways better and more exciting, and indeed controversial at times, same as every sport. Certain events, even for a somewhat niche sport now in its first year of a distribution deal on ESPN platforms, can generate the betting handle seen in a good NFL game.

“Everyone understands a fight”

Exposure to more mainstream audiences via ESPN and FOX Sports 1, through an earlier deal, continues to raise MMA’s profile. To get to this this point, UFC and other promotions such as Bellator have long embraced and understood the engagement value of sports betting.

“The UFC has been on the forefront of sports wagering content,” Jason Simbal, vice president of risk management for CG Technology, told Sports Handle. “They embraced it by including odds on the websites on telecasts. And the announcers will mention the betting favorites during the fights. Also they have their own produced betting show that airs before each pay-per-view on UFC Fight Pass, which helps.”

The PGA Tour, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, and National Hockey League alike have “evolved” since the Supreme Court struck down the 1992 federal ban on full-fledged sports wagering outside Nevada. Each of the commissioners of those leagues now tout the virtues of increased engagement courtesy sports wagering, manufacture new monetization opportunities, and enjoy those that have already come.

But while each of those leagues, particularly MLB, seek to build new sports betting bridges with proprietary Statcast figures, for example, there’s no learning curve to begin betting on mixed martial arts.

“I think it comes down to it being a fight. And what I mean by that is that when you’re dealing with a lot of other sports, you’re dealing with a lot of variables, the nuances of football, baseball, basketball,” veteran MMA writer-reporter Damon Martin told Sports Handle. “And there’s a guttural instinct in everybody when it comes down to it.

“And yes, there are a lot of nuances when it comes to mixed martial arts, too. But ultimately it comes down to a fight, and everyone including the guy down the street who only watches soccer, and casual followers, understands a fight.”

Correspondingly that’s where the most action comes — on who will win, less so the props like method of victory, such as by decision or submission or KO/TKO, or in which round a fighter will win.

“Betting on the specific fighter is the most popular, but we do a lot of parlay business as well,” Simbal said. “I’d say about 70% of the handle is on straight bets [side and total rounds] and 30% is on props and parlays.”

Stars drive the handle

This is no revelation at all: Stacked cards juice the handle. Just like an NFL game with a “national” team like the Cowboys or Steelers will draw heavier action than a Texans-Titans tilt, UFC events with headliners like Conor McGregor will attract more dollars. And no MMA fighter is a bigger attraction or better smack talker than the self-promoting 30-year-old Irish welterweight, who unabashedly seeks to make as much damn money with his fists and mouth as he possibly can.

“The spikes nowadays come depending on the card,” SuperBook Vice President of Sports Operations Jay Kornegay told Sports Handle. “We see solid action on every UFC card, but where we really see the needle moving is when we have an all-star lineup. Those cards are so popular we see the spike.

“Conor is the biggest one. Whenever he fights it will make a big impact on our numbers. Khabib-Conor. When McGregor fought Mayweather [in a boxing match], that was off the charts.”

6 years ago today. My first time as Champ Champ. It wasn’t until I won my second double that I trademarked it.
The O.G Champ Champ! pic.twitter.com/xjpbQA064Y

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) January 1, 2019

UFC 235 featured a pretty stacked card, too, with two title fights and Jon “Bones” Jones at the top defending his light heavyweight belt, albeit as a very heavy -800 favorite, so steep that it discouraged action. And the co-main event pitted defending welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, a former All-American wrestler at Missouri, against Kamaru Usman.

“The Usman fight was very comparable to a good NFL game,” Kornegay said, regarding the betting handle. “The Jones fight, not as much. Still a solid ticket count, but not as many large wagers.”

Simbal saw the same thing.

“A big PPV that’s in town, like UFC 235, always does a lot of volume,” he said. “In fact on Saturday the two title fights had the most handle of any events on the entire day.”

Jones controlled challenger Anthony Smith the entire fight and the only surprise is that Jones didn’t finish Smith, ultimately winning by unanimous decision. The odds of the fight going to decision closed at about +500, almost as big of an underdog as Smith was to win (about +625).

The more stunning result came during the Woodley-Usman fight. Not because Usman won by decision as around a +135 underdog, but his sheer dominance from wire to wire as Woodley barely touched up Usman. Woodley lost the takedown battle and Usman squeezed the life and seemingly the will out of Woodley and his massive quadriceps muscles. The judges scored the fight 50-44, 50-44, and 50-45 in Usman’s favor.

The past and future

Las Vegas is the mecca of mixed martial arts. Big UFC cards draw celebrities and big parties and, yes, big bets.  

“It’s the natural order of things,” Martin said. “Las Vegas is always being considered the fight capital of the world. I think it’s a natural extension of Las Vegas sports betting. Also, I think that the relationship was already built in with Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III being the owners, as they are known for being casino owners. So it’s a natural connection between the organization and the betting.”

From 2001 to 2016, before selling their shares for a reported $4 billion to Hollywood talent agency WME-IMG, the Fertitta brothers, also Station Casinos co-owners, owned and operated the fighting promotion. Also, UFC is headquartered in Las Vegas.

Thus the relationship between MMA and betting has never been taboo, even as a federal ban on sports betting hung over the rest of the country until May 2018. 

“I think you see it more with MMA than you do most other sports. You see the betting lines on TV,” Martin said. “There’s betting shows dedicated to mixed martial arts. There is no other sport besides boxing, when a big boxing match comes up, do you ever hear betting lines or those kind of things happen in any other sport the way it does in mixed martial arts.”

Big bets and a large betting handle isn’t necessarily the goal or the key, either. Just a $10 wager often spells two eyeballs.

“Big bets (four figures and above) aren’t as prevalent on UFC as other popular U.S. sports like college basketball and NBA, but handle and ticket count have definitely spiked for some of the bigger cards,” observed PointsBet US CEO Johnny Aitken. 

Kornegay notes that while the explosive growth of the early days of UFC has leveled off, the arrow still points up.

“When it first launched, it just skyrocketed,” he said. “We don’t see those types of jumps nowadays, but the numbers are still increasing, pending those all-star cards. Two or three all-star cards throughout the year, you’ll see increases when it capture the fan’s attention.”

And thanks to expanded legal sports betting in the U.S., there’s attention to be captured. According to a recent study commissioned by Bleacher Report, 58% of respondents say they would watch more games and 47% say they would watch more, different sports if sports wagering were legal in their states. In many states, it’s coming sooner or later.

In between the star-studded cards, there are less heralded events — Fight Night or ESPN+ events — filling the gaps, nearly every weekend.

"Floating like a butterfly… sting like Cigano!"

An energized @Junior_Cigano is ready to get back to the belt. #UFCWichita pic.twitter.com/4XllXhi6QO

— UFC (@ufc) March 8, 2019

“When it’s UFC or boxing, I write an article and I get a million responses, ‘Oh man! I can’t believe the odds, I can’t believe this guy’s an underdog, I can’t believe that he may be that much of a favorite,’” Martin said. “‘I’m gonna throw down some money on him while he’s still a big underdog.'”

And anecdotally, I can tell you as a former colleague of Martin’s at FOX Sports digital, nobody’s articles generated more traffic site-wide.

“I get reactions to the betting odds in MMA constantly,” he said. “It’s non-stop throughout the year whether it’s a Conor McGregor fight, or it’s the fight taking place this weekend in Wichita … people still care about those betting lines.”

ShareTweetShare
Brett Smiley

Brett Smiley

Brett Smiley is editor-in-chief and co-founder of Sports Handle, which joined forces with the US Bets team in November 2018. He focuses on the sports betting industry and legislation. He's a recreational sports bettor and DFS player himself, focusing on the NFL. In a past life, Smiley practiced commercial litigation in New York City and previously wrote for FOX Sports and SI.com. He lives in New Jersey with his family.

Related Posts

Megan Mendoza/The Republic
Industry

Betfred ‘Finally’ Licensed To Accept Sports Wagers In Nevada

January 26, 2023
betfred sign
Industry

Nevada Gaming Board Finally Set To Consider Betfred’s Sportsbook Application

January 19, 2023
Load More

Top Stories

taylor mathis

Taylor Mathis Got Sacrificed At The Altar Of Responsible Gambling

March 20, 2023
fanduel baseball wall

Premade Same Game Parlays Are Sucker Bets

March 13, 2023
maginfier-over-small-print

Read The Fine Print: A Proposed Federal Rule Could Change Everything For Indian Gaming

March 6, 2023
roman reigns wwe

Colorado Denies Report Stating That It’s Considering WWE Wagering

March 8, 2023

State Sports Betting Guides

Ohio (U.S. state) flag waving against clear blue sky, close up, isolated with clipping path mask alpha channel transparency, perfect for film, news, composition

Ohio Sports Betting – Where To Play, Bonus Offers And Promo Codes

by Brian Pempus
March 23, 2023

Downtown Detroit at twilight (Shutterstock)

Michigan Sports Betting – Where To Play, Online Sportsbooks, And FAQ

by Brett Smiley
March 23, 2023

VA captial

Virginia Sports Betting – Where To Play, Online Sportsbooks And Bonus Offers

by Brett Smiley
January 17, 2023

nj flag

New Jersey Sports Betting — Where To Play, Online Sportsbooks, And FAQ

by Brett Smiley
March 22, 2023

pa online sportsbooks

Pennsylvania Sports Betting – Where To Play, Online Sportsbooks And Bonuses

by Brett Smiley
October 6, 2022

Canada Sports Betting Guides

Canada Sports Betting – Best Sportsbook Apps & Bonus Offers

British Columbia Sports Betting – Legal Update, Available Sportsbooks, and FAQ

Ontario Sports Betting – Legal Status And Where To Play

SportsHandle

  • Analysis
  • Casino
  • Features
  • Horse Racing
  • Industry
  • Legal
  • Legislation
  • Opinion
  • Podcasts
  • Poker
  • Politics
  • Promotions
  • Regulation
  • Sports
  • Uncategorized

Better Collective

This website is owned and operated by Better Collective USA. Trademarks and copyrights referenced on this website are and shall remain the exclusive property of their respective owners and/or licensors. Please be sure to visit the operator’s website(s) to review their terms & conditions. We advise you to read these carefully as they contain important information. Copyright © 2023 USBets.com | Better Collective USA
21 Play Responsibly
Gamble Aware West Virginia
Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-Gambler.
GameSense

Search Sports Handle

No Result
View All Result
  • About Us / Contact
  • Responsible Gambling

No Result
View All Result
  • US Sports Betting
    • Arizona
    • Arkansas
    • Colorado
    • Connecticut
    • Delaware
    • Illinois
    • Indiana
    • Iowa
    • Kansas
    • Louisiana
    • Maine
    • Maryland
    • Massachusetts
    • Michigan
    • Mississippi
    • New Jersey
    • New Mexico
    • New York
    • Ohio
    • Oregon
    • Pennsylvania
    • Tennessee
    • Virginia
    • West Virginia
    • Wyoming
  • Pending States
    • California
    • Florida
    • Georgia
    • Missouri
    • North Carolina
  • Canada
    • Ontario
    • British Columbia
    • Alberta
  • Sportsbook Apps
    • FanDuel
    • BetMGM
    • Caesars
    • PointsBet
    • BetRivers
  • Tools
    • Sportsbook Bonuses Explained
    • Sports Betting Revenue Tracker
    • Sports Betting Podcasts
    • Partnership Tracker
    • Expected Value
    • Sports Scores And Odds Apps
    • Sports Betting Twitter
  • News

loading

Please wait while you are redirected to the right page...