Bet on mixed martial arts at Sportbet

As we near the end of 2009 we take a look at some of the biggest moneyline upsets bets in MMA of that year. Everyone knows about Kimbo Slice losing to Seth Petruzelli. This fight shocked the world but it was not the biggest betting upset of the year at +358.


No other sports betting upset was as big as when former top pound for pound fighter Takanori Gomi lost at Sengoku 6 to Sergey Golyaev. Golyaev already had 5 loses and he was not expected to come close to beating  the highly ranked Gomi but he ended up winning a split decision. That fight was probably the biggest upset in MMA history next to Georges St Pierre`s lose to Matt Serra at UFC 69 – Shootout. The other two biggest betting line upset of the year was Yoon Dong Sik losing to Andrews Nakahara at Dream 6 at +525 and Fabricio Werdum getting brutally KOèd by Junior Dos Santos at UFC90: Silva vs. Cote Rounding out the top five on the  most surprising MMA betting upset was the once unbeatable Urijah Faber losing to Mike Brown at WEC 36 at -563 and Roan Carneiro.


Sports betting is a tricky thing. Thankfully betting on the UFC and mixed martial arts in general is much better to win and profit on than in most sports. Because sports’ betting on MMA has been relatively new many of the top sportsbook oddsmakers have no idea how to set the on online betting lines. Most lines makers have no idea about fighters, their training schedule who they have fought in the past and their fighting style.

MMA betting is all about matchups and who they are fighting that day. If a fighter has lost 2 in a row n but he has fought top level guys that the oddsmakers will look at those stats and set soft lines for that fighter since they see he has lost recently. But what if that fighter is a striker and fought two high level grapplers and now he is fighting another striker. For example, a UFC 104 Machida vs. Rua,  Chael Sonnen was  pretty big underdog versus Yushin “Thunder”Okami at +185. He was only a betting underdog because he lost his last fight versus Demain Maia quickly. However, Maia is a top level grappler and Okami is not but the sports book oddsmakers have no idea how to set the lines.


Marketing also plays a big example. Just look at the fight between Anderson Silva versus Chris Leben. Not many oddsmakers knew who Anderson Silva was but because he was on the Ultimate Fighter reality show he was a betting favourite versus Silva. This still occurs to this day as many fighters on the reality show get soft lines just because they have been seen by many people. If you study MMA, you can really make a good profit from betting on mixed martial arts.


Also unlike many other sports MMA is strictly moneyline bets. You don`t have to worry about point spread anymore. In sports like the NFL, NBA or MLB you might win the bet as you pick the right team but you lose your money since you did not beat the spread.


This list of the 20 biggest sports betting upsets for 2008 covers all the many MMA organizations and including the UFC, WEC, EliteXC, Strikeforce, Sengoku and Dream.

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