50% up to $250
The straight bet is the most common UFC bet, which is very easy to understand, as you are simply betting on which fighter will win. It is also known as a moneyline bet, as those are the odds used. For, pretty much, every fight there will be a favorite and an underdog and the moneyline odds will reflect that as well as the the payout. In any UFC moneyline bet you will see a fight with odds such as this:
Jon Jones -350 vs. Anthony Johnson +250
In this example above the – in front of Jones means he is the favorite and the + in front of Johnson means he is the underdog. The numbers will show how much the payout will be for that fighter if they win. The moneyline odds are put out by the sportsbooks to attempt to get even money wagered on both fighters. With Jones the big favorite in this example the payout for him is not as attractive as it is for Johnson.
You can wager whatever amount you wish, but to show the general payout structure let’s go with $100. In this example above you will have to wager $350 on Jones to win $100 since he is the big favorite. Since Johnson is the big underdog you only have to bet $100 on him to win $250. As you can see the payout for Jones is much more risky and less lucrative, but he is the big favorite to win the bout.
Typically for a moneyline bet the more someone is the favorite the less risky it is the bet on them. However, on the other side of the coin you will lose more money if there is an upset. This is why a moneyline that is closer to even odds can be more attractive. An example of a more even fight would look like this:
Robbie Lawler -110 Rory McDonald +130
In the above example the odds have this as a much more even bout with Lawler the slight favorite. If you want to bet on Lawler you will have to wager $110 to win $100 and if you want to bet on McDonald you will have to wager $100 to win $130. As you can see the risk for betting on the favorite in Lawler is lower since he is only the slight favorite and the payout for betting on McDonald is also not as lucrative since he is only a slight underdog.
It is pretty rare, but if a bout has dead even odds they will typically have odds for each fighter at -110. Again for this payout you will have to wager $110 to win $100 on this type of even odds UFC bet.
One thing you should know is that different sportsbooks will have different odds, but not by much. Still, if you know what fighter you want to wager on it is a good idea to shop around to find the best odds possible so if Lady Luck is on your side and your fighter wins you win the most money possible.
