Ok, so you love the UFC, love MMA, and now you want to put your cojones on the line and put some actual money on an actual fight.

Heres the deal. Its EFFING AWESOME. And it will transform your whole MMA watching experience. Seriously, you will never cheer harder for a 3 -1 undrdog in your freaking LIFE.

So, this first thing you need to clearly understand are the betting lines.

Those are the pluses and minuses you see after a fighters name, and this is how they work:

Minus means FAVORITE. Plus means UNDERDOG. easy.

The math of the numbers sort of gets tricky, but this is the rule you need to follow:

For a FAVORITE, the number you see is the amount of money you need to BET to WIN $100.
For an UNDERDOG, the number you see is the amount of money you WIN when you BET $100.

So, If Anderson Silva is a -600 FAVORITE, then you would have to BET $600 to make $100 if he wins.

If Kimbo Slice is a +400 UNDERDOG, you would WIN $400 for each $100 you BET.

Thats about it, the next major step os for you to fully undertad how Odds are set. If you gain a clear understanding of how Odds get made, its much easier to place a winning wager.

What you need to be aware of in wagering, and this goes for all sports, not just MMA, is what is called a PUBLIC line. Whats that you say? Well the easiest example to give is a football one.

You must always keep in mind that the goal of a bookie, or a sportsbook, is to try to get betting equal on both sides of a game or fight. The logic behind this is that if there is equal money on both sides of an event, then the risk of losing money is minimized, and the book is guaranteed to make money  from the juice of the wagers.

So a lot of times, the lines that you see have as much to do with how the PUBLIC feels about the teams of fighters, than the fighters themselves. Heres and example:

If the Indianapolis Colts are winning every game by 20 points, and they’re playing their next game against the Cleveland Browns, the PUBLIC feeling about the Colts is like “Man, Indy is going to DEMOLISH Cleveland!” There fore, the pointspread would have to be large enough to encourage betting in Indy, AND the Browns.

The same philosiphy applies for MMA, if everybody think Anderson Silva is going to completely annihilate Demian Maia, then the Oddsmakers have to set a line that encourages an even number of bets on each fighter. That is why you will see lines move, if a ton of money comes in on one side.

The secret to this is finding the fights with skewed lines. A fantastic example is when Junior Dos Santos fought Fabricio Werdum at UFC 90 as a pretty massive underdog. When footage on Dana Whites UFC video blog surfaced showing the previously unknown Dos Santos HAMMERING some punch mits during training, money flooded in on Dos Santos, taking him from heavy dog, to almost even.

Since Fabricio Werdum was a familiar name in the UFC and coming off two TKO victories in a row, and Dos Santos was brand new to your average bettor, the value on Dos Santos was through the roof.

There you have it, MMA betting 101! Now its time to go make some bank on the UFC!