Ultimate Fighting Championship - The UFC

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has come a long ways from its underground, anything-goes roots of the early 1990s. At the time the struggling company was banned in almost every state and Senator John McCain once called it “human cockfighting” during his efforts to have the sport banned for good.

Plagued by controversy and cash flow problems, the sport looked doomed until one day a group of investors bought the UFC and set up Dana White as its president. In an effort to improve legitimacy and soften the public’s perception, the new owners set up weight class divisions, banned head butting and put an end to eye gouging. Hey, it’s all about baby steps, baby.

At the time, public interest in boxing was dropping at an alarming rate. In what was once the most popular combat sport in the world, promotion scandals and outrageous boxers’ antics were turning fans way off. There were too many separate “world championship” titles, unscrupulous promoters and out-of-control athletes (Mike Tyson, anyone?). The gradual fall of boxing was just as great a boon for the UFC as anything else.

Even to this day, interest in the sport is growing at a phenomenal rate. More and more people are ordering the pay-per-views and as a result, many more are becoming interested in betting on the sport.

The first snag for most new UFC bettors comes when they run across the moneyline quotes. Most UFC sports betting sites list upcoming fights in a moneyline format which looks a lot more confusing than it actually is.

You’ll know you’re betting on a moneyline fight when each fighter’s name is followed by a plus or minus sign and a number. For example, you’ll often see fights that look something like this:

R. Couture (+105)

B. Lesnar (-140)

 

The first thing to remember here is that the favorite to win the match is always the (-) negative and the underdog in the match is always the (+) positive.

In this example, Randy Couture is the underdog and the moneyline shows that for every $100 you bet, you’ll get $105 if he wins. If you are betting for Brock, you have to bet $140 to win $100. The odds aren’t as good for him because the odds makers think there’s a good chance he’ll win the fight.

Odds makers set these lines in an effort to get an equal amount of betting action on each side of the fight. Sportsbooks minimize their risk the most by getting half the people to bet on one side and half the people to bet on the other side. That way the sportsbook can just use the money from the losing side to pay off the winners on the other side. If too many people start betting on one side of the fight, the sportsbook simply adjusts the moneyline to give people more of an incentive to bet on the underdog.

Click Here >> Best Sportsbooks to Bet UFC.