UFC betting sites

Who wins

The main bet is the moneyline. A fighter at -200 means you risk $200 to win $100; his opponent at +170 means $100 wins $170. Those two prices add up to 103.7 percent, so the book's cut on a fight like that is a little smaller than on a football side at -110. If the plus and the minus are new, what the moneyline means explains them.

Rounds in the UFC are five minutes, and most fights are scheduled for three, with title fights and main events for five. The round total is a bet on how long the fight lasts. Over 1.5 rounds means the fight is still going two and a half minutes into the second round.

How and when

The method of victory market splits the fight six ways: each fighter by knockout, by submission or by decision. Here is the same fight, with a set of prices a book might deal.

Outcome	Price	Percent
Favorite by KO or TKO	+150	40.00
Favorite by submission	+600	14.29
Favorite by decision	+350	22.22
Underdog by KO or TKO	+500	16.67
Underdog by submission	+1200	7.69
Underdog by decision	+700	12.50

Those add up to 113.4 percent, against 103.7 on the moneyline. The prices are made up for the sum, but I'd expect a real board to look much the same: the six-way bet carries about three and a half times the margin of the plain one. Exact-round props are dearer still. Before I bet a method prop, I add up that book's six prices, and if one book's board comes to much more than another's, I know where not to bet them.

Fight week

More than any sport, the event you bet on Monday may not be the one that happens on Saturday. A fighter misses weight, gets hurt in camp, or is replaced by someone who took the fight on a few days' notice. Most books void a bet when the opponent changes and let it stand when the fight is merely moved to another card, but the rules differ, and so does how a book grades a draw or a no contest. I'd read all three rules before the first bet.

The lines move hard in fight week too. Weigh-ins, injury rumors and late money all push them, and limits on fights stay low compared with a big team sport, lower still on the early part of the card. A book knows a few people who follow a division closely can beat its number on a fighter nobody else has watched.

The fight-night parlay

The public bets favorites, finishers and names, and it bets them in parlays. Three heavy favorites strung together feel safe. I never thought a fight was the place for that feeling, because one punch can end a fight that was going the other way. The parlays page shows what that ticket costs.

Live betting between rounds is where I'd look if I looked anywhere: the number moves on what the judges might have seen, and you have a minute to think. I'd keep a fight card to a fixed figure for the night and 1 or 2 percent of the bankroll a bet. A card runs for hours, and the main event is always the last fight, after you've already won or lost on the others.