How To Bet On Ufc Fights

Mixed martial arts provides one of the most exciting and high-energy sports experiences in the world. While there is a multitude of different fighting organizations across the globe, nothing compares to the prestige of The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The UFC is the premier organization in all of mixed martial arts. It’s the pinnacle and the big stage where any and every aspiring fighter hopes to find themselves one day.

Betting on UFC fights and UFC fighters is fairly simple and straightforward. First of all, identify the sports operator that you’d like to use to place your bets. If you are looking for how to bet. How To Bet On UFC. Looking to increase your knowledge of the sports betting world of UFC? This all-inclusive guide will guide you into the next steps. Whether you are a fan of the sport itself or you are a fan of betting, UFC provides excellent betting opportunities that anyone can benefit from. A “To Win Fight” bet in the UFC is no different than when you make a moneyline bet in other North American sports and it’s pretty self-explanatory – you’re picking which fighter will win the fight. It’s often called a straight-up bet at the sportsbook because UFC moneyline betting involves you choosing one fighter to win over the other.

Whether you’re an adrenaline junkie looking for more action on the fights or you’re a sports bettor looking for a competitive edge, you’ve come to the right place.

Below you’ll find a collection of expert picks, strategy guides, and anything else important that you need to crush the books and start making money betting on the UFC.

Our Expert Picks

It’s no secret that there are UFC experts. We’re not talking about your buddies that scream their “expert” knowledge at the TV during every UFC event at Hooters and say how every fighter is an idiot. We’re talking about ACTUAL experts who utilize their knowledge to win money betting on the UFC. It’s easy to have an opinion as a couch commander, but it’s much more challenging to put your money behind that decision and come out financially on top.

Normally this information is not available to the general public. These experts rarely share their secrets to making picks and certainly do not share their actual picks. Things are different here at The Sports Geek, though. We pull back the wool and give you unparalleled access to our team of experts. They’ll share how they make their picks, why they made those picks, and most importantly, who they are picking for upcoming fights.

How much? Free. Not to sound overly dramatic, but this information should cost thousands of dollars, and we are giving it to you for free. Not a free trial…not just the leftover bets…the actual bets our experts are going to make in real time, completely free. If you’re ready to see what our experts have to say, click on the link below and you’ll be entering the ring with some of the best bettors in the MMA industry for free.

Best UFC Betting Sites

Knowing which fighters to bet on or what bets to make is only half the battle. The other important thing to know is where the best place to place your bets is. In years past, your only option was to go to the closest sportsbook or casino which can sometimes be hundreds of miles away.

Even if you have a sportsbook close by, you’re stuck with the betting lines that they provide and the options of bets they choose to offer. This means no line shopping unless you are ready to test the durability of your car and its gas tank and sometimes the inability to leverage all of your knowledge.

Thanks to Al Gore (or whoever really created the internet) this has all changed. Online sportsbooks are prevalent and give you incredible access to more bet types, more perks, no lines, insane comfort and convenience, and most importantly the ability to shop betting lines to get the most bang for your buck.

Here you’ll find the list of the best online sportsbooks offering action on the UFC. What makes these sites the best? They offer the most bet types, the fastest payouts, and the easiest to use interfaces. Most importantly, though, these are sites you can trust. What’s the point of betting if you can’t be sure that you’re going to get paid when you win? The answer is there is no point which is why we made sure to vet these sites as extensively as humanly possible to ensure your safety.

It’s also important to point out that we DO NOT allow sites to pay for “better reviews” or “to be recommended”. The only way that any sportsbook makes it onto our recommended list is by offering the best and most trustworthy action out there.

UFC Betting Strategy

Understanding how the UFC operates and who the different fighters are is certainly important to be a successful sports bettor. However, it’s only a small piece of the strategic pie. Your baseline knowledge might help you enjoy the fights more, but it’s going to take some additional strategy considerations to start booking winning bets and padding your wallet.

Our experts have put together a comprehensive collection of UFC betting strategy tips to get you started on the road to making money. These betting tips will help to change the way you look at fights. The goal is to get you to look at fights less as a fan and more as an intelligent and sharp sports bettor who cares about making money off the fights.

Being a successful UFC sports bettor is much less about what you want to happen and sometimes not even about what you think is going to happen. It’s about finding value and making the bets with the highest expected value. Click below to see exactly what we’re talking about and elevate your UFC betting abilities to the next level.

The Most Popular UFC Bet Types

To fully understand UFC betting, you need to understand the different types of bets that are available to you. Surprising to some, you can bet on a lot more than whom the winners of the fights will be. Why is this important? Betting flexibility affords you the ability to leverage more specific predictions about how the fight will go which will earn you more money.

Picking the winner is great, but what if you can pick how the winner will win? If you know a fighter is going to submit the other fighter, shouldn’t you be able to cash in on this and get paid? This is the reason these other bet types are important to understand.

One key thing to remember before we get started is that just because these other bet types exist does not mean that you have to utilize them. There are plenty of successful professional UFC sports bettors that only bet on fight winners. We just want you to be aware that these options exist in case you find situations that you feel you can leverage a more specific prediction to make additional money. The more specific the pick is, usually the better the payout odds will be.

Money Line/Match Bets

While we did lead off telling you about how there are so many different bet types out there besides picking the fight winner, this does not mean that we can forget the most basic UFC bet available. The Moneyline or Match Bet is the bet where you pick the winner of a fight. This is the most popular bet type, and also the simplest to figure out and understand.

If fighter A is fighting fighter B and you bet that fighter A will win, all fighter A has to do is defeat fighter B and you win your bet! It does not matter how they win, what round they win in, or anything else. The only thing that matters is the fighter you bet on walks away with the victory.

Now, while the bet itself is simple to understand, there are a few things that may be a bit more confusing that you need to understand. Not all bets are paid out the same. Imagine if there was a fight between Anderson Silva and a 10-year-old boy that you could bet. The sportsbook also says that they are paying out even money (the same amount) for each fighter. What would happen if a sportsbook allowed this?

We’ll tell you. Everyone would bet on Anderson Silva, and when he destroyed the 10-year-old, the sportsbook would be out of money and no longer be in business. Obviously, they won’t allow this to happen. What they do is adjust the payouts to try and get the right amount of money bet on each fighter so that regardless of who wins the sportsbook pays out the same total amount.

How do they do this? They use what are called Money Lines. A money line is a number that dictates to you the sports bettor how much you will be paid out for a correct pick. This number will also show you whether or not the fighter is favored (based on bets) or is an underdog. Moneylines can be represented as American Odds, Fractional Odds, or Decimal Odds.

This will change depending on where you are in the world. These all mean the same thing, but for the sake of this discussion, we are going to use the American Odds. If you’re betting online at one of the sites we’ve recommended, you will be able to change the betting odds to whichever format you are most comfortable with.

Sportsbooks will continually alter these odds to “sweeten the pot” on the side of the bet that they need more bets on. For example, in our above example at even money, everyone would be betting on Anderson Silva. In order to try and get some bets on the 10-year-old (yes we know this is an insanely exaggerated example), they will shift the money line to pay out less for a bet on Anderson Silva and more for a bet on the 10-year-old. This should deter bets on Silva and encourage bets on the kid.

This means for you the bettor that you can’t just bet on who you think is going to win the fight. You need to make sure that the risk and reward are something you feel brings you value. For example, let’s say that Conor McGregor has a fight coming up and he is -380. You feel he is most likely going to win. Should you bet this?

Well, you have to realize that -380 means that Conor is the favorite and tells you that a $100 bet will only get you about $26 in profit if you are correct. Now you have to take a step back and look at how certain you are that Conor will win. If you think that payout is worth the risk, make the bet! If that doesn’t sound great to you, wait to see if the line moves and offers you a better price and a bigger payout.

Remember, on the other side of the coin the fighter who is an underdog will offer a much sweeter payday if you bet on them and they win. In that same fight against Conor, his opponent might be +340. This means that if you bet $100, you will win $340 in profit for a correct prediction! It’s important to realize this is done because the fighter is not expected to win.

How To Bet On Ufc Fights

Money Line bets are not just about picking the winner. It’s about picking a winner that is offering you a payout that you think is better than it should be. This is called finding value in your bets. In the above example, if you would be happy only getting $20 for a Conor win on a $100 bet, then this bet is a great value. If you think it’s only worth it to bet if you get $30 or more for a Conor win, then the bet does not have value and should be avoided.

Value is a whole other can of worms we get into in the strategy section above, but for now, that should be enough for you to start to begin to understand Money Line bets. If you skipped the strategy section and this concept confuses you, or you want to learn more, we recommend going back and reading that section.

Place a bet on a fighter, and if they win, you win your bet. It’s that simple. The only part where it gets complicated is on exactly how much you will be paid for that correct prediction. You will always be paid something though with a correct pick.

Over Under Round Bets

A popular UFC bet you can make is the Over Under Round Bet. This bet allows you to wager when you think the fight will finish. For example, in a three-round non-title fight, you may be able to bet whether or not the fight will finish before or after 2.5 rounds. If you bet that the fight will finish under 2.5 rounds, you need the fight to finish before the 2 minute and 30-second mark of the third round.

It does not matter if it’s by submission or KO or TKO; as long as the fight finishes before that mark, you win your bet. If you bet the over on 2.5 rounds, you need the fight to last at least one second past the 2 minutes and 30-second mark of the third round.

What happens if you think the fight is going to go the full three rounds and go to the judges? You bet the over. Remember, all it says is that the fight has to last AT LEAST 2.5 rounds. Basically, the reason this is set at the 2.5 mark frequently and not at the 1.5 (halfway) point is it’s essentially a bet whether or not the fight is going to go the distance or not. You still do win if the fight ends in the last 2 minutes and 30 seconds as well, though.

These bets are great to make if you have a good idea of how you think the fight is going to go. Let’s say you think that two fighters don’t have the power or skills to stop each other and it’s going to be a big snooze fest. You might now have a prediction on who you think is going to win, but you can now bet that the fight will go the distance and make money on the boredom of the rest of us.

Prop and Victory Bets

Prop bets (proposition bets) are the collection of random bets that don’t fall into the above categories. Victory bets are a type of prop bet. Before we get into victory bets, let’s talk a little more about prop bets.

Prop bets are bets where something is proposed, and you bet on whether or not it is going to happen. For example, you might bet on which fighter will throw more jabs. This bet does not have a direct effect on the outcome of the fight (though it helps) and is independent of who the fight winner is. If you bet that fighter A will throw more jabs, and they throw 100 more than fighter B, but fighter B knocks fighter A out with one stiff right, you still win your bet.

The most popular prop bet in the UFC is the victory bet. Victory bets are bets on how the fight will end. For example, if you think the fight is going to end by submission, you could wager on that. Typically, the victory bets are attached to a fighter so you’d actually be betting that a particular fighter would be winning by submission.

There are times that you will see victory method bets available and not attached to a fighter. In this case, you are just hoping that the fight ends in the method you selected. These are rare, though.

As predicting the exact way a fight will end is much more challenging, the associated payouts will reward you handsomely. Expect to get paid well if you hit one of these victory bets especially if it’s tied to a particular fighter.

Pairing Complementary Bets

We briefly touched on this with the victory bets above, but we wanted to expand on the concept. You are not limited to only making one type of a bet on a fight. You’re free to make several different bet types if you have a strong prediction of how the fight is going to go.

For example, let’s say that in an upcoming fight you think that Michael Bisping is going to knock someone out clean early in the fight. Why just bet Bisping to win? You can place a bet on him to win, and you can place a bet on him to win by knockout, and you can place a bet for him to win under 2.5 rounds. That way, if you are correct, you’ll collect a huge payday.

If you happen to be mostly correct about a prediction, you’re still going to make money. Let’s say in the above example fight Bisping wins in the first round but does it by submission. You’re going to lose your victory bet, but you’re going to win your moneyline bet, and your under 2.5 rounds bet.

The Big Picture – UFC Betting

Betting on the UFC can be both fun and lucrative as long as you know what you’re doing. Sports betting does not have to be gambling but can be a way to make some serious cash by leveraging your knowledge base (or the knowledge base of our experts here :) ). Gambling is betting on a game of chance while sports betting can be a profitable long-term endeavor.

Take this information and combine it with your own knowledge and research and hopefully, you’ll have a long and successful UFC sports betting career.

We also hope you check back often to see what our experts are picking and how that lines up with your thoughts and predictions. Whether you use our picks or not, it never hurts to see a different angle of how someone educated in the sport is looking at a fight. It may help you to get more confident in your pick or may save you from making a big mistake in case you missed something.

Good luck friends!

When UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and his challenger, Gilbert Burns, step into the Octagon on Saturday night, they will be kicking off an unprecedented run of title bouts. From this weekend's UFC 258 event through UFC 260 six weeks later, there will be six fights in which a belt is on the line. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, that is more than in any other 42-day period in the UFC's 27-year history.

One of those title bouts is a champion vs. champion superfight, and that means seven of the UFC's 11 belt holders will be in action before the end of March.

There's also a long-awaited rematch. There's a meeting of two fighters who were teammates until last year. There's an appearance by a two-division champ who also happens to be the women's GOAT.

Every one of the upcoming championship bouts is an example of top-shelf UFC matchmaking. You will not find a puzzling pairing among them -- nothing like Jose Aldo getting a bantamweight title shot coming off two straight losses, as happened in July. These fights pit champions against No. 1 or No. 2 contenders, with the superfight having even loftier credentials. What's more impressive, two of the defending champs are actually betting underdogs.

Which of the title fights is the crème de la crème? Here's one observer's ranking:

1. Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou, UFC 260, March 27 at site to be determined

Odds: Ngannou -160 Miocic +135
At stake: Miocic's heavyweight championship

Why it's ranked where it is: Heavyweight. Championship. Of. The. World. That alone makes this fight the biggest of big deals. But when the greatest heavyweight ever is an underdog? This one simply can't be beat.

Story line: It's a rematch of a 2018 title bout won by Miocic, halting Ngannou's previous scary run of fast finishes (10 straight, six in Round 1, four in Round 2). Can Ngannou avenge a loss against the greatest heavyweight in MMA history?

Notable numbers: 45, 26, 71 and 20. That is the amount of seconds it took Ngannou to finish each of his four most recent fights. Those lightning-fast knockout victories came against notable opponents, too: two former champions (Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos) and two rising contenders (Curtis Blaydes, Jairzinho Rozenstruik).

X factor: Ngannou has been a terror with his fists, for sure, but he has been so quick with his KOs that we have seen no evidence that he has shored up the grappling deficiencies that plagued him in the first Miocic fight. The champ took him down six times and made the fight largely a five-round wrestling match, nullifying the big man's dangerous power. Ngannou landed just two significant strikes in the final three rounds combined. Sure, he has been known to put out an opponent's lights with a single punch, but that scenario is unlikely to play out if he's fighting from his back.

2. Jan Blachowicz vs. Israel Adesanya, UFC 259, March 6 in Las Vegas

Odds: Adesanya -275 Blachowicz +210 (At Bet MGM; not yet listed by Caesars Sportsbook by William Hill)
At stake: Blachowicz's light heavyweight championship

Why it's ranked where it is: Double champs tend to clog up both of the weight classes they rule, and that's not great for the sport. Still, watching the coronation process unfold as it happens -- or doesn't -- is magical. Actually, watching Adesanya in any context is magical.

Story line: Champion meets champion, in just the sixth such superfight in UFC history. Can Adesanya, who already reigns at middleweight, take over the sport in the wake of pound-for-pound king Khabib Nurmagomedov's retirement?

Notable number: 0. Although he will be the challenger on this night, Adesanya (20-0) is the only unbeaten fighter in this run of distinguished title bouts.

X factor: Adesanya will be going for the belt in a weight class 20 pounds above his middleweight domain. That might sound like a daunting challenge, but history tells us it's doable. In the five champ-vs.-champ matchups so far in UFC history, the fighter from the lighter weight class has won all but one of them. The sportsbooks apparently keep up on those stats, as 'The Last Stylebender' has been installed as a betting favorite.

3. Amanda Nunes vs. Megan Anderson, UFC 259, March 6 in Las Vegas

Odds: Nunes -1100 Anderson +700
At stake: Nunes' featherweight championship

Why it's ranked where it is: This is a mismatch, for sure, but what elevates the fight to must-see status is this: Any opportunity to see the greatest female fighter in history do her thing is not to be missed.

Story line: Two-division champ defends one of her belts -- in a weight class that may or may not have staying power in the UFC.

Notable number: 5. That is how many fighters are on the women's featherweight roster posted on the UFC website. Other than Nunes and Anderson, there's just Felicia Spencer, whom Nunes defeated last June in her most recent title defense, plus a 36-year old who is 0-2 in the Octagon (Zarah Fairn) and a fighter with just one UFC appearance -- in 2018 (Leah Letson). By allowing Cris Cyborg and Cat Zingano to leave for Bellator, the UFC is down to slim pickings at 145 pounds.

How To Bet On Ufc Fights Draftkings

X factor: This is Nunes' first fight after becoming a mother in September, when her wife, UFC strawweight Nina Ansaroff, gave birth to a baby girl. How has parenthood affected the champ's preparation and performance? Nunes is not the first UFC fighter to juggle parenthood and fighting, but it's a first for her. Will the greatest female fighter of all time -- and one of the best ever regardless of gender -- be at the top of her game?

4. Kamaru Usman vs. Gilbert Burns, UFC 258, Feb. 13 in Las Vegas

Odds: Usman -280 Burns +230
At stake: Usman's welterweight championship

Why it's ranked where it is: Some fans are most drawn in by hate-filled rivalries, which is why this meeting of respectful ex-teammates has flown under the radar. But to fans who put fighting first, Usman is special -- top five pound-for-pound, and hasn't lost in nearly eight years.

Story line: Ex-teammates meet in a real fight with real stakes.

Notable number: 2. That is the number of seconds that Usman has spent on the bottom in grappling exchanges during his 12-fight UFC career. It's the shortest total time on bottom in welterweight division history, and it's significant because he will be in the cage with a four-time submission grappling world champion. The more control Usman has over where the fight with Burns takes place, the better his chances of extending his 16-fight winning streak and remaining champ.

X factor: How different will Usman be from the fighter Burns used to train with? They were teammates for years in the Blackzilians gym in South Florida before both moved to a new Hard Knocks 365 team in 2017 with trainer Henri Hooft, later rebranded as Sanford MMA. They remained teammates until Burns defeated former champion Tyron Woodley last May to earn a title shot. With this bout originally scheduled for July 12, Usman moved his training to Colorado so he could work with Trevor Wittman, who also trains Justin Gaethje and Rose Namajunas. Burns did not make it to the July title fight, testing positive for COVID-19 and being replaced by Jorge Masvidal, whom Usman dominated. After a December rebooking fell through, the matchup is back on, with the champ having put in even more work with his new coach. How will that benefit him in this meeting of familiar faces?

5. Petr Yan vs. Aljamain Sterling, UFC 259, March 6 in Las Vegas

Odds: Yan -130 Sterling +110
At stake: Yan's bantamweight championship

Why it's ranked where it is: Of all these title fights, this is the one for which it's most difficult to formulate a prediction. That's a good thing. The lack of star power might be a downer for some fans, but the evenly matched competitiveness raises the stock of this matchup.

Story line: This is the title fight that should have happened eight months ago. When Henry Cejudo announced his retirement last May, Yan and Sterling were the first to call for the UFC to declare the bantamweight title vacant and let them fight for it. But the promotion instead booked Yan against Jose Aldo, despite the former featherweight champ having lost both of his fights at 135 pounds. Sterling was the odd man out then, but now he gets his chance.

Notable number: 3.07. That's the amount of strikes landed by Yan in the UFC for every one he absorbs, the best ratio in bantamweight division history. Sterling comes in at No. 3 of all time, at 2.82. Who will find his target?

X factor: Yan vs. Sterling originally was scheduled for December, but the champ pulled out of the fight, citing unspecified personal reasons. Then, when the matchup was rebooked for March, Yan moved his fight preparation to American Top Team in Florida -- a strong camp with excellent fighters. Yan has been working with his boxing coach from Thailand since January, but changing up the routine right before his first title defense? That bears watching.

6. Alexander Volkanovski vs. Brian Ortega, UFC 260, March 27 at a site to be determined

Odds: Volkanovski -195 Ortega +165
At stake: Volkanovski's featherweight championship

Why it's ranked where it is: Last place, eh? Amidst this run of title fights, there's no shame in being sixth best. Volkanovski has been unstoppable, and so has Ortega other than his one bad night against Max Holloway. We might end up looking back on this fight and proclaiming it the best one of all.

Story line: A champ on a 19-fight winning streak finds himself having to prove his worth. The predicament stems from Volkanovski's title defense in July, a split-decision win over Holloway, the man he had dethroned seven months earlier. Many observers thought Holloway should have had his hand raised in the rematch. But it was Volkanovski who got the 'W,' and now he has a chance to put a stamp on his title reign.

Notable number: 55. That's the percentage of Volkanovski's significant strike attempts in the UFC that have found their mark, the best accuracy among active 145-pounders. When a fighter is connecting at such a clip, it leaves the opponent with little room for defensive errors.

X factor: Ortega took a beating from Holloway in a TKO loss in 2018, then sat out for over 20 months before returning in October against Chan Sung Jung. Ortega put on a masterful performance against 'The Korean Zombie,' showing enhanced standup skills to complement his high-level grappling, looking like a new man. Will Volkanovski be better prepared than Jung was for the new Ortega, having watched and broken down those five rounds? Will Ortega be able to sustain the momentum he built in the fall?

Note: Unless otherwise noted, betting odds provided by Caesars Sportsbook by William Hill as of Feb. 8.