Sports betting on MMA (mixed martial arts) is becoming increasingly popular worldwide. As a relatively new sport in online betting, MMA provides experienced players with a unique opportunity to make big profits. Unlike other well-known sports, MMA betting requires a unique and systematic approach to predicting outcomes. With a large number of fighters and different organizations, it can be difficult to follow all the fighters and make the right choice.
Stay tuned and check out this quality guide to tips and strategies that can help you choose on whom and how to bet.
History of Sports Betting on MMA
MMA is a hybrid martial art that combines boxing, wrestling, judo, jiu-jitsu, karate, Muay Thai, and other disciplines. Although initially characterized as a brutal bloodthirsty sport without rules, MMA emerged at the beginning of the 21st century as one of the fastest-growing sports for the audience.
The history of this sport itself begins during the Olympic Games in 684 BC when pankration was considered a martial sport of the Greek army. The competition included wrestling, boxing, and fighting without rules. Punching and kicking were allowed even while the fighter was knocked down, only biting and eye-digging were forbidden.
The more intensive development of MMA began at the beginning of the 20th century through the Brazilian martial art Vale Tudo. This sport was in trend from 1920 to 1960 and involved fighting in the ring with minimal rules. Further development took place through Brazilian jiu-jitsu and various combinations of martial arts such as judo and boxing. In its current form, MMA became famous in the 1990s through arranged competitions organized by the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). So now, most of the fights are held as part of the competition of the UFC.
What kinds of Bookmakers Are Most Suitable For Betting on MMA
Today, almost all bookmakers offer MMA betting and almost all new players nowadays make their first steps in betting on it (and betting overall) via mobile applications. With the development of mobile devices, most of the Internet has moved to mobile versions of sites and mobile apps. Mobile betting offers the convenience of betting anywhere and anytime.
The competition in the online betting market is great, which further conditions the accelerated development of applications with an emphasis on the user experience. Almost all bookmakers that have a mobile app have promotions and bonuses, and those that don’t, usually have very high odds and low margins.
When choosing bookmakers where you will put in your money in MMA betting, you should definitely take into account whether they can pay you a win or not. All bookmakers that are put together on Bookmaker-Expert.com don’t have problems with the payment of winnings because, in order to operate at all, they must have enough money at all times to cover all possible winnings.
The speed of payment primarily depends on the chosen payment method. Out of methods of withdrawing money from the sportsbook account to your online betting account, payments that are usually offered are on payment cards, through numerous e-wallets and payment services, to a bank account, while some also offer payments in cryptocurrencies. Of course, you always have the option to choose an in-person payment method by going to one of the branches and withdraw money, and the funds can also be paid directly to your bank account.
With the development of online bookmakers, payment systems have adapted, and bookmakers have cooperated with them and offered a large number of payment and withdrawal methods. It is in the interest of each of the companies that offer money transaction services to the betting account, and from the betting account to your account, to attract as many users as possible with the quality of their services. So, without a doubt, the fastest way to get cashed out is on one of the e-wallets, such as Skrill or PayPal.
What to Pay Attention to When Betting on MMA
When betting on MMA, you first need to understand how odds work before you can make a good choice. You need to understand what the bookmaker wants to do with each bet. Their overriding goal is for their profits to be the same, no matter which fighter wins.
Don’t bet on absolutely every fight. It is no pleasure for anyone to just sit and watch a fight, without a bet. At the same time, this is one of the worst strategies. It is impossible to explore every fighter in detail for every fight. When you bet on every fight, you are just guessing, gambling blindly, instead of taking a calculated risk.
Many don’t care about the location of the match, considering that each ring is the same. However, when it comes to location, you should take into account the path to the ring and the altitude. Of these two, the most important factor is altitude because the higher the altitude, the less oxygen, and the greater the load on the body to take the required amount of oxygen.
Study each fighter. The better you know the fighters, the better decision you will make about the bet. The information to be explored are:
- Fighter sparring partners
- History, i.e. an overview of fighters’ matches
- Injury information
- Who trains your fighter
You can always visit the most popular MMA website for statistics (Sherdog), where you can find a lot of useful information such as how many fights fighters had, how many wins, losses and draws. Also, you can see what was the way the fighter won or lost the match.
The additional tip would be to explore the MMA promotions such as UFC, Bellator, One Championship KSW, or some local organization.
Why is it important to consider promotions when placing bets – because in UFC, for example, there is much better competition, the matches are more uncertain compared to some local organizations, where the most popular fighters trying to improve their score by fighting underdogs.
Also, check sometimes social media of the fighters, to see their shape and how they prepared for the match.