Sportsbooks Starting to Offer MMA Prop Bets

Prop bets gaining popularity in MMA

MMA and, in particular, the UFC have transformed the sport from being perceived as a low-brow, extreme combat sport to a billion-dollar industry that ranks among the top-grossing sports in America.

Dana White put the UFC on the map by attracting countless new fans with everything from the Lidell vs. Ortiz rivalry in the early 2000s to the record-setting Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov fight in 2018.

The UFC is regarded as a Bonafide betting market nowadays, with all of the nation’s top sportsbooks offering odds and lines on the action in the octagon. The soaring popularity of UFC and MMA betting has inspired the books to get creative with their offerings and are providing bettors with all kinds of ways to have skin in the game. The options range from standard moneyline bets to more exotic prop bets that tackle specific occurrences within a fight.

Prop bets are a bet made regarding the occurrence or non-occurrence during an event not directly affecting the game or fight’s final outcome.

Types of MMA Bets Sportsbooks Offer

A large part of what makes UFC betting so appealing is the sheer number of wagers available for each fight. There are UFC odds for outright winners, methods of victory, over/under bets for rounds, and specific round picks, among others.

Let’s go over the main types of UFC bets you can make at MMA online betting sites:

Winning method. A UFC bout can end with one fighter submitting or knocking out another or by a judge’s decision (split, unanimous, majority). In most sportsbooks, you can place bets on these methods of victory. It doesn’t matter who wins the fight—the important thing is that it ends the way you predicted.
Fight to go the distance. It’s a popular yes/no proposition on whether the standoff will end by decision, which would imply that both fighters have finished the required number of rounds without getting KOed, TKO’d, or submitted.
To win by finish. You can bet on a specific fighter to win the bout by either KO/TKO. For instance, you can pick Francis Ngannou to win a given fight by KO/TKO/DQ.
To win by submission. With this wager, you’re betting that your fighter will beat his opponent by submission. Generally, longer odds are associated with this type of bet since less fights are decided this way.
Time or fight finish. It is possible to place a bet on whether the fight will end within a specific timeframe. For instance, you can wager on whether the particular bout will be decided before the 2.5-minute mark of the third round.
Round where someone wins. A bet on the exact round the fight will end. Most commonly, the sportsbook will post a 1.5 line, and you have to pick whether the fight will be decided before or after that threshold.