MMA betting is one of the fastest growing forms of sports wagering and is an exciting way to watch a fight. A professional MMA match is a highly intense, athletic contest with two skilled athletes fighting in a cage with no teammates and no timeouts. The fights feature some of the most brutal action in all of sports and the stakes for the fighters are high. There are several tried and true MMA betting strategies that can be utilized to maximize the potential for winning.
Moneyline bets are the most basic form of MMA betting and involve placing a single bet on a specific fighter to win a fight. In MMA, the odds on a moneyline bet are set by the oddsmakers and reflect how likely it is that a fighter will win based on their performance in previous fights. A favorite will usually have a minus symbol in front of their odds while an underdog will have a plus symbol in front of theirs.
In addition to the traditional moneyline bet, MMA betting also features several other types of bets, including parlays (accumulators), over/under bets, round bets and method of victory bets. These types of bets often come with higher payout odds and are based on the anticipated length of a fight or other measurable factors such as how fast a fighter can knock someone out.
The most common MMA prop bet is the over/under, which is a bet on how many total rounds a fight will last. The over/under is determined by the oddsmakers based on how long they anticipate a fight will last and can be profitable if the fighters perform at a high level throughout the entire fight.
Another popular MMA prop bet is on how many times a fighter will be knocked down during the fight. This bet is settled as a ‘round’ bet, meaning that the winner of the fight must be either KO/TKO or disqualified within the specified number of rounds. If a knockdown occurs but does not count as a finish for any reason, then all bets will be made void.
Many MMA bettors make the mistake of betting big on heavy favorites in every fight, believing that they can make quick profits. However, this strategy can lead to long-term losses unless bettors research the fighters and find out which ones truly deserve their status as favorite and which underdogs are capable of upsetting them in a given fight. In addition, bettors should always keep an eye on a fighter’s history of wins and losses and search for any inconsistencies in their results. For example, a fighter who has dominated a certain division but struggled against others in other promotions may need to rethink their style and seek out better opponents moving forward.