UFC Betting Sites 2024

Outright Winner (Moneyline)

The outright winner market is the easiest way to bet on the UFC.

Punters will see the outright winner market before anything else when they log in to one of our top-rated UFC betting sites. The outright winner market is the best for those who are just starting with UFC betting, as all bets cash no matter if your fighter wins by decision, KO/TKO, or submission.

For every UFC fight, regardless of whether it’s on the UFC Fight Pass Prelims or the main card of a pay-per-view event, punters will have the ability to bet on either fighter to win the fight.

Here’s an example of what the outright winner market looks like:

• Conor McGregor: 1.67
• Eddie Alvarez: 2.50

When Conor McGregor and Eddie Alvarez clashed at UFC 205 in November 2016, McGregor was the betting favourite, and Alvarez was the underdog.

Because McGregor finished Alvarez in the second round by KO/TKO, all punters who backed McGregor in the outright winner market at odds of 1.67 cashed in and made an excellent profit.

Remember, all that matters in the outright winner market is that your fighter wins the fight! If you’re certain that a fighter is going to win, but you’re not sure how then the outright winner market is the one for you.

SBO’s must-know tips:

• When a “draw” occurs, wagers on both fighters “to win” are refunded.
• Any fight that is deemed “no contest” will have all wagers refunded.

Whether you’re a UFC betting rookie or veteran, we highly recommend betting on the outright winner market as it holds the greatest potential for long-term profits.

Total Rounds (Over/Under)

You don’t always have to pick a winner when betting on the UFC.

Instead, punters can use their knowledge of mixed martial arts to predict whether a fight will last longer or shorter than a time specified by the bookmaker.

For example, the bookmakers might set the total rounds market for a three-round fight at 2.5 rounds, allowing punters the option of betting on the fight lasting longer or shorter than the 2:30 mark of the third round.

Here’s how the total rounds market looked for the Conor McGregor vs. Eddie Alvarez UFC Lightweight Championship bout:

• Over 1.5 rounds: 1.56
• Under 1.5 rounds: 2.65

Although this was a five-round title fight, the line was set at 1.5 rounds. The odds were shorter for the over 1.5 rounds selection than the under.

McGregor went on to stop Alvarez at the 3:04 mark of the second round and all bets on the over 1.5 rounds cashed in at odds of 1.56.

SBO’s must-know tips:

If a fight is stopped at any point during the round, bookmakers will classify anything before 2:30 as under and anything after that time as over the halfway point of that round. For example, the midway point of the second round was the over/under line for the McGregor vs. Alvarez bout.

Similar to the outright winner market, the total rounds market is another favourite of ours and one that we highly recommend for punters of all experience levels.

Method of Victory

Choosing the exact method of victory is one of the best ways to boost your potential earnings when betting on the UFC.

Instead of merely betting on a fighter to win the fight, the method of victory market allows a punter to access higher payouts by predicting if a fighter will win the fight by KO/TKO, submission, or decision.

Here’s an example of the method of victory odds from the Conor McGregor vs. Eddie Alvarez fight:

• Conor McGregor to win by KO/TKO: 2.10
• Conor McGregor to win by submission: 16.00
• Conor McGregor to win by decision: 9.00

Of course, punters could have sided with Eddie Alvarez and backed him to win by either of these methods also.

Although McGregor’s outright winner odds were shortened all the way down to 1.67, punters could still get favourable odds for McGregor to win by any of these outcomes. McGregor won by KO/TKO and punters cashed in a profit of £110 for a £100 bet at odds of 2.10.

SBO’s must-know tips:

• A KO/TKO is defined as a referee stoppage (while standing or on the canvas), doctor stoppage, corner stoppage, or when a fighter retires due to an injury.
• A submission is defined as when a referee stops the bout due to tap out or technical submission, or when the fighter verbally submits to a submission or strikes.

While the method of victory market provides lucrative betting opportunities, we only recommend placing bets on this market if you spot outstanding value.

Round Betting

Another way to improve your potential returns when betting on the UFC is by selecting what round a fight will end.

If you were confident that Conor McGregor would finish Eddie Alvarez early at UFC 205 but you weren’t enticed by the betting odds for McGregor to win in the outright winner market, you could have improved your odds by narrowing down the time of victory and choosing the round of the stoppage.

Here are the round betting odds from McGregor vs. Alvarez:

• Conor McGregor wins in Round 1: 5.00
• Conor McGregor wins in Round 2: 7.00
• Conor McGregor wins in Round 3: 13.00
• Conor McGregor wins in Round 4: 13.00
• Conor McGregor wins in Round 5: 17.00

Because McGregor managed to finish Alvarez by KO/TKO in the second round, all bets on Conor McGregor to win in Round 2 made $600 profit from a $100 bet at odds of 7.00.

SBO’s must-know tips:

• If a fighter retires in between rounds and fails to start the next round, the fight officially ended in the last round.

The round betting market can provide outstanding returns for bettors who genuinely understand mixed martial arts. We recommend betting on this market only if you are familiar with both fighters and their styles.

Use Your Value-Goggles

It’s not always the best idea to pick the fighter whom you expect to win.

That might sound contrary to everything you ever believed about sports betting, but you can make some serious cash by recognizing high-value opportunities and putting your money behind them.

There’s probably no better example of this than Holly Holm’s historic upset victory against Ronda Rousey in 2016.

The bookmakers originally released the odds for this fight with Holly Holm as a huge underdog at odds of 9.25.

Those odds represented an implied probability to win of only 10.8%, yet anyone with a decent enough understanding of mixed martial arts (and those who had watched and researched Holly Holm) were convinced that Holm had a better chance of defeating Rousey than anyone else before her.

Everyone who locked in odds of 9.25  for Holm to defeat Rousey profited £825 from a £100 bet. Opportunities like this don’t come around too often…

Raise Your Stakes When You Find an Edge

When you do find a betting edge like the one above, you’re going to want to raise your stakes.

Some punters employ a traditional even-stake method of betting that restricts them from changing their bet value regardless of their confidence level. In some cases, and especially when betting on the UFC, this can work against the punter because some opportunities are far greater than others.

We recommend raising your stakes in line with your level of confidence for every bet. For most people, a three-tier structure would be most appropriate:

• Confident – 1x stake
• Very Confident – 2x stake
• Extremely Confident – 3x stake

Why does this work? Well, it’s not every day that you’re able to bet on a professionally trained fighter against someone of celebrity status…

Remember when CM Punk made his mixed martial arts debut against the extremely talented Mickey Gall? The odds for Mickey Gall to win in Round 1 opened at 1.95. This is an example of a great value bet that deserves higher stakes than usual.

How about when Ronda Rousey returned to the cage against the hard-hitting Amanda Nunes? Despite the UFC hyping it up as a relatively even matchup, Nunes finished Rousey in just 48 seconds. Many punters and analysts picked this result from a mile away and cashed in on the outstanding 3.64 odds for Nunes to win by KO/TKO.

In hindsight, both of these outcomes were obvious to fans of mixed martial arts, and they deserved greater attention than the average bet on the UFC.

Explore The Markets

Possibly the best advice that we can share with those who are looking to place bets on the UFC is to explore all of the available markets for every fight.

It’s not uncommon for the bookmakers to nail the odds for every outright winner market and leave next to no value for prospective punters. However, that doesn’t mean there is exceptional value hidden away in the trenches!

We recommend studying the extended markets, such as the method of victory and round betting options that we mentioned earlier because there is often high-value opportunities that exist there.

For example, Aljamain Sterling scored his first submission victory in almost three years when he finished Cody Stamann with a kneebar at UFC 228. Because Sterling hadn’t scored a submission win in quite a while, the bookmakers forgot about his capabilities and offered 8.45 odds for him to win by submission despite the low odds of 1.62 to win the fight.

At 1.62 against an up-and-coming fighter such as Stamann, it didn’t make sense to back Sterling at those odds in the outright winner market. However, Sterling to win by submission was a clear high-value bet and allowed punters to profit £745 for a £100 bet.