Mixed martial arts (MMA), led by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), has become the premier fighting sport in the world. Not surprisingly, this has also led to MMA making a splash in the gambling world. Big cards (and some smaller ones) are always available to be bet on, and there’s no shortage of information out there to help you make smarter bets. This article will look at the kinds of bets you can make when gambling on MMA fights, and some tips on how to make better MMA bets.

While other bets, such as betting on the number of rounds a fight will last, are also offered from time to time, most MMA betting is done on who will win a fight outright. These bets are made on a money line basis, meaning that you’ll win different amounts depending on who you bet on. For instance, here’s a typical line taken from an upcoming UFC card:

Brock Lesnar -200

Shane Carwin +140

This means that if you’d like to bet on Lesnar, you’ll have to wager $200 for the chance to win $100. In other words, you’re laying 2-1 odds on Lesnar. If you bet $100 on Carwin, you’ll win $140 should he win the fight; put another way, you’re taking 1.4-1 (or 7-5) odds on Carwin to win. The favorite will always be listed with a minus next to their name, and the underdog will have a plus. One exception is if the fight is an even match; then you might see both fighters listed at -110 or similar.

As in any sport, there’s no surefire way to win all (or nearly all) of your MMA bets. However, there are some MMA betting strategies you can use to improve your chances of making a long-term profit.

First of all, remember that MMA is a relatively new sport. Because of this, nobody has quite the handle on how to properly set odds for fights in the way that bookmakers do in sports that have been established for a century or more. This also means that the public has less of a clear view of who the best fighters are, and tend to gamble with their emotions more than their minds.

You can take advantage of this is two ways. For one, fading the public is a great idea in MMA. If a line is moving fast and it’s clear that all the public money is on one side, it’s usually a smart bet to be on the other. Even if the public aren’t completely wrong, chances are that they’re pushing the odds in favor of one fighter far more than they should, meaning there’s value on the other side of the fight. Secondly, underdogs tend to be good values in MMA, as both bookmakers and the public have (at least so far) tended to underestimate the chances of upsets in major fights. This is especially true because of the fact that shock knockouts (or submissions) are more common in MMA than in boxing, which can turn one momentary lapse in concentration into a loss. If a good, established fighter is getting long odds from a seemingly superior fighter, that might make them a good underdog to bet on, as they’re clearly capable of winning fights even if they’ll not considered to be on the same level as the favorite.

Of course, as in most sports, research is important too; you’ll want to know all about the styles of both fighters and how that will impact the matchup you’re betting on. If you remember to take all of these factors into consideration when handicapping MMA fights, you should find no shortage of good MMA bets to make at your online sportsbook.