MMA Betting Guide: How To Bet On UFC Fights

World In Sport

28 February 2022

MMA Betting Guide: How To Bet On UFC Fights

Are you a fan of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and want to find out more about how to bet on UFC fights online?

We have gathered some UFC betting tips, information on UFC betting sites, and how to get the UFC betting odds.

The most popular UFC and MMA bets

Below is a list of the most popular Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and UFC bets.

1) The Moneyline

The online sportsbook provides odds on either fighter to win, with one fighter listed as the underdog and the other as the favourite.

In some cases, the odds will be very similar if the opponents are evenly matched.

Hardly any of the fighs end in a draw, with only 1.7% ever having ended in a draw, het the Moneyline markets do offer a draw as a possibility.

2) Over/under rounds

The UFC odds for an over/under MMA betting strategy may be low, but it is also relatively easy to make money.

The sportsbooks determines a line for how long the fight will last, and you get to bet whether it will last longer or shorter.

UFC rounds last five minutes, so many markets are placed at lines which include half a round.

For example, if your UFC bet is that the fight will last 2.5 rounds, and the fight is topped three minutes into the third round, you will win.

But, if the fight ends one minute into the third round, you will not win.

3) Proposition bets

UFC prop bets are bets that are not related to UFC Moneyline betting.

They offer different ways to bet on UFC fighters, like how the fight will end, the points spread, fighting to go the distance (including the fighting style), and players touching gloves.

The types of prop bets offered will depend on the sportsbook.

4) Round Betting

Sports bettors wager on in which round the fight will end, and who will win.

You can use past statistics on the fighters who have won fights early and place your bets on the most likely candidate. Even professional UFC bettors use this betting strategy.

5) UFC Method of Victory

For combat sports, it is quite simple to bet on the outcome of the fight. A fight can end by decision, draw, KO, or submission. Method of Victory bets are similar to Moneyline and round bets.

6) UFC Futures Markets

You can bet long term on a future UFC fight or fighter. Futures betting is when you bet on who will win weight categories, and who will be the UFC Champion.

The MMA betting odds are usually pretty high for this type of bet.

MMA Betting Strategies

1) Select the Young Fighter

One of the main MMA betting tips is to go with the younger fighter, as they are determined and have more energy. Since January 2020, 62% of UFC fights were won by the younger fighter.

There are some key statistics to consider when betting on the younger fighter:

For fights where the fighters had more than a 5-year age difference, the younger fighter won 61% of the time.
If the age gap was more than 10 years, the younger fighter won 64% of the time.

That doesn’t mean older fighters are guaranteed to learn. Experience, knowledge and form can turn the victory odds in their favour.

2) Late Replacements

Many fighters pull out at the last moment, and then those fighters have to be replaced at short notice. This is not uncommon, and in the history of UFC, 64% of late replacements have lost the fight.

3) The better striker is a better bet

If two fighters are evenly matched for MMA fights, then look at their statistics and back the better striker. The fighter that had better striking accuracy and could strike faster wins 64% of the time.