Hey MMAMania.com readers ... this is Damon D from BetUS Sports Radio (a series of sports betting related podcasts). It's likely that you may have heard of us before -- Jesse Holland is a frequent guest on my "Fight Talk" show, sharing his infinite mixed martial arts knowledge from time to time.
MMAmania.com often passes along the latest odds from our sportsbook for each UFC event for those fans who prefer to make the fights more interesting and possibly make some nice scratch in the process.
To check out the latest betting odds for UFC 85: "Bedlam" and make some wagers CLICK HERE.
Don't know what the any of that means or what you are doing? No problem. That's the reason for this post.
On my show I cover all the major sports to bet on, including football, baseball and basketball. But what really turns my crank is mixed martial arts. Football may pay the bills, but MMA wets my whistle (I don’t know what that means but you get my point).
I try my best to educate people and promote the sport wherever and whenever possible. And unlike others in the industry I try to turn down the douche dial a little bit.
Now as an MMA sportsbook analyst I get to do a lot of cool stuff, but regardless of where I am or who I’m talking to I continually have to answer the same question about MMA odds:
"What the #%*$ does minus 200 mean?"
Well, I’ve written a balls load of explanations and explained it to people countless times. Some people get it and others never will.
To help everyone calculate the odds easier we finally made a betting calculator that will do all the math for you instantly. It takes all the odds and crunches the numbers so you don’t have to hurt yourself trying to add anymore.
To check it out right now CLICK HERE.
For those who want to know a little extra background on how this works let's quickly go through how lines are set and adjusted to better understand the philosophy behind the numbers.
So let’s start off easy. Minus(-) = FAVORITE. Plus(+) = UNDERDOG.
The number that comes after the minus is how much you have to RISK to win $100 and the number that comes after the plus is what you WIN if you risk $100.
For example, if a fighter has a -200 after his name it means that you would have to RISK (or bet) $200 to win back $100. If it’s +200 -- and you bet $100 -- then you would win back $200.
Again, if the concept is still too damn confusing remember to check out the UFC Bet Calculator right here.
There are a few extra things that you should probably know about these odds. Now bear with me because it’s kind of detailed, but it could also make you a lot of money in the long run.
First off, you’ve never met a bookie with a part time job, meaning that regardless of how ridiculous you think a line might be oddsmakers are in reality extremely intelligent. And if they weren’t huge sports fans, they’d be designing rocket engines for NASA or something like that.
So take the line seriously ... always.
Secondly, lines are set for money to come in EVEN on both sides of a fight. In a perfect world, if every fight, game or race had exactly half the people betting on either side the risk for a sportsbook is minimized.
Therefore, in high profile bouts public opinion is a major factor in making a line.
An example that I like to use with last season’s New England Patriots. The lines for some of their games were ridiculous, but it had more to do with the perception of how good they were and not their actual skills.
The problem is, if they’re playing a winless Miami team, NOBODY would put any money on Miami unless they thought they had a remote chance to cover. And since the Patriots were all over the news and setting records and being awesome this would inflate the line to make it easier for Miami to cover in order to keep the money even on both sides.
This is the same reason you will see a line move leading up to a fight. If a balls load of money is coming in on GSP at -300, oddsmakers will make it less profitable to make a bet on him and you will see the line creep up to -350, -400 etc., and a more profitable to bet on Matt Serra whose line will increase (from say +350 to +500).
Therefore, if you think a low profile underdog can win a fight wait until the drunken Las Vegas weekend money starts rolling in. Because as the high profile favorite gets all the dough laid on him your little doggie will start getting sweeter. (Ask anybody who waited on Serra – St. Pierre 1 who got him a +1200 right before the fight).
Well that’s that. If you have any questions for me about this stuff comment here on MMAMania.com and I’ll be sure to reply.
Remember to check out the latest betting odds for UFC 85: "Bedlam" and make some wagers RIGHT HERE.
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