If you are new to betting – particularly in the field of MMA or boxing – you might find the whole process a bit overwhelming. You’ll see all sorts of numbers, both negative and positive, and that chases away too many wannabe bettors.
What are those numbers?
For instance, you will see bookies going with -250 for the favorite or +250 for the underdog. It definitely seems confusing, especially because your intuition is telling you that fighters with the plus prefix should be treated as favorites.
But things are not as difficult as they seem at first. We will use this post to show you everything there is to know about MMA and boxing odds. Let’s give it a try….
A Simple Explanation of Booking Odds
We don’t want to beat around the bush, so let us begin by telling you the basics straight away. A simple explanation of booking odds is this:
Fighter 1: Odds of -250
This means that the first fighter is the favorite to win the match. The -250 part shows that you need to invest $250 if you want to win $100 clear.
Fighter 2: Odds of +400
This means that the second boxer is the obvious underdog.
But that’s just the first part of the equation. Another thing you need to know is the difference between net and total amounts you could earn by winning a ticket. If we go back to our examples above, it would look like this:
- The first fighter wins and you have a winning ticket. The odds were -250, so you had to invest $250 in order to win $100. It means that you get a total of $350 ($250 that you’ve invested and a clear win of $100).
- The second fighter wins and you want to collect the prize. The odds were +400, so you had to invest $100 in order to win $400. It means that you get a total of $500 ($100 that you’ve invested and a clear win of $400).
When you see bookmaking offers in the +/- format, you are actually seeing the so-called American odds. They are by far the most common in the US and you can see it clearly if you analyze the review of sports betting websites NJ. We don’t want to bother you with other formats, but let’s just mention that bookies in other countries often use fractional or decimal odds as well.
Common Boxing and MMA Bets
The rules we described above apply to all types of fighting disciplines, but we want to give you an overview of the most popular boxing and MMA betting options. There are five main solutions and a wide range of additional ways to place wagers:
- Match outcome: This is, of course, the most popular betting option since people love predicting winners and losers. But there is an in-between solution as well and that is to go for the draw.
- The end round: MMA and boxing fights can end literally any time, so you can bet on the end round. It can be considered a game of chance because knockouts can happen every second.
- Way of victory: Every fight ends in one of the following ways – by knockout, disqualification, decision, or technical knockout.
- Knockout or decision: You can also pick one of the two key options – whether a fight will end by knockout or decision.
- Above/Under: Some players enjoy betting on the total number of rounds. For instance, under 4.5 rounds means you think the match will end within the first four rounds.
The Bottom Line
Placing a wager on MMA or boxing fights is a nice way to spend your time off work, but you should know what you are doing before depositing the money. After all, many people get confused when they facing boxing and MMA odds. Our article gave you a step-by-step overview of the basic betting rules, so we hope you can find your way through fighting odds now. Are you ready to give it a try?
See also : MMA predictions and betting tips for MMA.
