If there’s a sport that’s getting more popular as time goes by, it’s mixed martial arts (MMA). The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is, by far, the most popular promotion in MMA, both among sports fans and among bettors. If you belong to the latter category, you might be interested in learning more about Vegas odds in UFC.

So chances are that if you landed on this page, you’ve recently become a UFC fan, and you now want to put your money to work. Or perhaps you’ve seen +145 or -200 beside a fighter’s name, and were. The betting odds are one of the most important factors in deciding on whether to bet on a game or not. If you study a UFC fight and determine that Jon Jones has a 60% chance of beating Mauricio Rua, then you’re going to need to find out if the odds. UFC 258 predictions, odds and Usman vs Burns betting offer. Field Level Media is a sports content provider. Kamaru Usman is a big favorite but he's getting into the octagon against former longtime. How Do UFC Odds Work? If you see that odds on one fighter are presented as a negative number (e.g., Nurmagomedov -150), it means that they are the favorite. Likewise, if a fighter’s odds come with a. Here’s an example of what the betting odds 1 will look like for UFC matches: These odds are displayed in what is known as the American odds format. In every match, there is a fighter considered the favorite to win and an underdog.

That’s exactly what we’re going to deal with in this article.

So, what are ‘Vegas’ odds? In a nutshell, those are the odds you will see in Nevada’s land-based sportsbooks, which often differ from those available online.

For Example

Let’s say you go to one of Las Vegas sportsbooks such as Golden Nugget, Wynn, or Caesars, that’s where you’re going to see odds displayed like this:

• Khabib Nurmagomedov (-150)
• Conor McGregor (-110)
• Stipe Miocic (+130)
• Shevchenko vs Maia Over 2.5 Rounds (-110)

You might have come across these sorts of odds, but this doesn’t necessarily mean you know what they mean. The truth is that a large number of bettors have no idea what Vegas odds are, let alone how to use them to calculate their potential winnings. Luckily, we’re here to help you learn everything about Vegas odds in UFC.

How Do UFC Odds Work?

If you see that odds on one fighter are presented as a negative number (e.g., Nurmagomedov -150), it means that they are the favorite. Likewise, if a fighter’s odds come with a positive number (e.g., Miocic +130), it means that the fighter in question is the underdog in that bout. The higher the number, the bigger favorite/underdog the fighter is.

If both fighters are given the same odds (usually -110), it means that they have equal chances of winning. The same applies to all the other markets, like the total number of rounds, method of victory, and so on.

How to Calculate Vegas Odds in UFC?

Now that you know what Vegas odds in UFC mean, the next obvious question is how can you use them to calculate your potential winnings. There are two formulas to use, depending on whether the Vegas odds are displayed as a positive or negative number.

If it’s a positive number, you should go with the following formula:

Vegas Odds/100 x Your Stake

The figure you get from this equation represents your net winning, but you should know that you will get your stake back as well.

If the fighter’s odds are displayed in negative, you should go with this formula:

Your Stake/Vegas Odds x 100

How Vegas Odds Help You Pick the Fight Winner?

Keep in mind that Vegas odds do not equal true probability. The fact that a fighter is a favorite to win does not necessarily mean he/she is actually better than the opponent. At least, not in every case. Sometimes, Vegas odds are reflective of bettors’ behavior. If they’re wagering a lot of money on one player, the odds are going to change in his favor.

Still, in most cases, Vegas odds are as close as possible to true probability. The thing is that the oddsmakers employed by big-name Las Vegas sportsbooks are really good at their job. The result is that the fighters labeled as favorites by Vegas oddsmakers win the fights most of the time.

Using Vegas Odds to Calculate Fighters’ Chances

You can use Vegas odds to calculate the favorite’s chance of winning the fight. It’s done through this formula:

Percentage = (Vegas Odds / (100 + Vegas Odds)) x 100

Note that in this formula you need to use a positive number, even though the odds on favorites are displayed as negative numbers. This may seem confusing, which is why we’re going to explain it through an example.

Let’s say you wish to see what are the chances of Jon Jones winning his next fight, you need to find the odds Vegas sportsbooks are giving on his win. If the odds are -120, for example, you need to divide 120 by 220 (100+120). The result you get, which in this case is 0.54, you need to multiply by 100 in order to get Jones’ chance represented as a percentage. In this case, his chance of winning would be 54%.

When it comes to calculating the probability that the underdog is going to win the fight, here’s the formula you should use:

Percentage = (100 / (100 + Price)) x 100

In this case, too, you will get the fighter’s chance displayed as a percentage. Apart from using these formulas to calculate chances of fighters winning, you can also use it for other wager types as well. This goes beyond UFC – you can use these formulas to calculate probability in literally any sport.

So chances are that if you landed on this page, you’ve recently become a UFC fan, and you now want to put your money to work. Or perhaps you’ve seen +145 or -200 beside a fighter’s name, and were wondering what those numbers meant. Well, whatever the reason, you’re in the right place my friend.

In this post, I going to cover everything there is to know about the odds, and what they mean for UFC fights. How do UFC odds work?

In short, the odds work by first showing if the fighter is a favorite (-) or underdog (+). The number for an underdog shows how much money you win if you were to bet $100 on that fighter. The number by a favorite shows how much money you would have to bet to win $100.

This might be a bit confusing at first, but don’t worry. In the rest of this post, I’ll go into more detail on how much money you would stand to make in different examples, and how to place bets to maximize your wins.

What Exactly Do The Odds Mean?

How To Read Betting Odds

So basically, the odds are intended to show which fighter is more likely to win the fight. The fighter most likely to win is called the favorite, while the fighter unlikely to win is called the underdog.

How Does Vegas Odds Work In Ufc

As already mentioned, the favorite is marked with a -, and the underdog is marked with a +. The numbers beside them correlate to the payout when you bet on that fighter, something I’ll talk about in more detail later.

But basically what these numbers are trying to decide, is how competitive this fight will be. If the number for the underdog is very high, for example, +600, then that means there is a very small chance that they win the fight.

Likewise, if the number for the favorite is -600, then there is a very high chance that they will win the fight.

While the odds are intended to show the competitiveness of a fight, this is not always the case. This is because the odds are partly decided by the bookies, the people who take the bets.

The odds change as more people bet on a certain fighter, which is intended to show that that fighter is more likely to win. However, odds may be skewed from the actual competitiveness of a fight, based on these bets.

A perfect example of this occurred when Conor McGregor made his boxing debut against Floyd Mayweather in 2017. Boxing pundits widely agreed that there was no chance McGregor could win the match, and rightfully wrote the odds at Mayweather the -2500 favorite, and McGregor the +1100 underdog.

However, McGregor fans were betting for McGregor in a frenzy, so much so that they pushed the odds into what seemed like a more competitive match. By the time fight week came around, the odds were Mayweather -475, McGregor +375!

Nothing changed in terms of how competitive the matchup would be. The only thing that changed was the number of bets placed, forcing bookies to charge more for bets on McGregor, and charge less for bets on Mayweather. And as we all know, the original odds were more than justified after how the fight turned out.

How The Odds Work (How Much Will I Win?)

So now you know what the odds are supposed to represent, but how exactly do they work? Let’s talk about how much money you would make on some bets.

First, I’ll explain how the numbers for the underdog or favorite correlate to your potential payout. Let’s start with the favorite.

Favorite (-)

So as you know, the favorite is represented by a minus sign and a number (let’s say -200 in this case). Because the favorite is more likely to win, you stand to make less money than on an underdog.

The number that a favorite is represented by indicates how much money you would have to bet, in order to receive a payout of $100. So in this case, our fighter is at -200. This means you would have to bet $200, in order to win $100 when they win.

Also, I want to note that the odds start at 100. So when the odds are at 100, they are simply referred to as even, meaning that there is an exact 50% chance that the fighter wins, and your payout would just be double what your bet was.

Ok, so here’s how you calculate your payout for a bet on the favorite.

Step 1

First, take the odds of the favorite, and divide it by 100 to get your divisor. So if the odds are -200, you get 2.00. If the odds are -145, you get 1.45.

Step 2

You with me so far? Good. Now, take the amount of money you want to bet, and divide it by the result you got in the last step.

Let’s say you want to bet $15. Let’s say the odds are -145. So, your divisor should be 1.45. So here’s what that math looks like:

$15 / 1.45 = $10.34

So your profit on this bet would be $10.34, plus the $15 you initially placed the bet with, meaning your bookie should return you a total of $25.34.

Let’s take another quick example. Let’s say the odds are -275, and you again bet $15. Here’s the resulting math:

$15 / 2.75 = $5.45

Because the favorite was more likely to win at -275, the payoff was not as good as the -145 one from before. Your profit is $5.45, plus the initial $15, meaning your bookie owes you $20.45.

How To Bet On The Ufc

Now let’s look at how much you make when you bet on an underdog.

Underdog (+)

When you place a bet on an underdog, you (correctly) expect to have a better payoff if they win, as their chances of winning are less than the favorite. As mentioned, the underdog is represented by a plus sign, and a number (for example, +200).

In the case of an underdog, the number notes the amount of profit you stand to make from the bet when you place a $100 bet. So for a +200 underdog, if you bet $100, you win $200.

Here’s how you calculate your payout on an underdog bet.

Step 1

Similar to before, we take the underdog odds, and divide them by 100. So if the odds are +145, we get 1.45.

Step 2

How To Understand Betting Odds

Here, instead of dividing, the result we got from Step 1 is a multiplier. So take the amount of your bet, and multiply it by the result in Step 1 to get the profit.

For example, if we have odds of +145, and a bet of $15, here’s what the math would look like:

$15 * 1.45 = $21.75

So your profit is $21.75. When we add the initial $15 you placed the bet with, you get back a total of $36.75.

Let’s look at another example, where you again bet $15, but the odds are now +275. We get:

$15 * 2.75 = $41.25

Your profit for this bet is $41.25! Now you might understand how much better the payoff for an underdog is than for a favorite. Adding the initial $15 bet, the bookie owes you a total of $55.25.

Finding The Best Odds

Alright, so now you understand how the odds work, and you want to start betting. But where do you start?

Betting On Ufc Fights

There are many online betting sites that you can use to bet on UFC fights. I personally use Bovada, and they’ve been alright. Their website can be slow at times, but I suppose that’s expected with most sites (although I wouldn’t know, as I’ve only ever used Bovada).

I’m not affiliated with Bovada in any way, but regardless, feel free to use any betting site you wish. Many bettors open accounts with many different betting sites. Why?

Well simply put, every site offers different odds on the same fight. If you have an account on multiple sites, you can find the site that has the best odds, and place a bet with them, maximizing your profits.

If you take a look at BestFightOdds.com, you’ll find that it’s a great resource for comparing odds across different sites.

How To Read Ufc Odds

The site shows the odds for a fighter in each different column, with the corresponding betting site listed at the top. The fighters are shown in rows, and are listed on the left side. The odds highlighted in red are the best odds for that fighter.

The site makes it pretty easy to find the best odds, and I recommend it if you are considering doing some serious betting.

That’s pretty much it for this post. I appreciate you sticking around to the end. Here’s a quick summary.

In short, the UFC odds work by showing you how much money you make on a favorite (-) or an underdog (+). If the fighter is a +200 underdog, you make $200 on a $100 bet. However, if they are a -200 favorite, you only make $50 on that $100 bet.

I hope this post helped you learn how to read the betting odds for UFC fights. If you enjoyed this post, please consider checking out similar ones on the Martial Arts History page. Thanks for reading!