Mixing It Up: Milan Rabszski Attempts to Understand MMA Betting

Milan Rabszski is well-known for being Poland’s biggest gambling expert. He runs TopKasynoOnline, a website dedicated to reviewing online casinos and helping Poles bet better. Of late, he has decided to explore the world of sports betting, and that exploration brings him to an MMA club in Warsaw, where he has secured an interview with a Polish fighter and bettor who has chosen to remain anonymous.

Though he isn’t a fan of the sport, it is hard not to have heard of MMA icons like Anderson Silva and Conor McGregor. Milan has heard of them too, and he opens the interview by asking why these players, and this sport, have the world so fascinated.

It has taken nearly 30 years since the UFC’s inception for mixed martial arts to move from being a niche interest to being one of the sports industry’s largest moneymakers, says the man. In 2022, mixed martial arts draw in massive PPV audiences, feature top athletes from a variety of disciplines, and have convinced many of these athletes to compete. It is a spectacle, not unlike a rock concert, and it lets human beings tap into their instinctual aggression by betting on violence.

How Does MMA Betting Work?

Milan, still wrapping his head around all the lingo in sports betting, looks at his notes and asks how the betting systems in MMA work. The fighter offers a very detailed answer.

The concept of placing a bet is very simple, and it is the same as in every other sport. People can pick a match, choose whom they want to bet on, and place a bet through a legal sportsbook. There is absolutely nothing illegal about this practice. However, if one wants to make money out of this and do it seriously, then they have to do some research about the fighters, their records, their form, their performance of late, the odds, and especially the kinds of bets they want to place.

MMA betting has a lot of variation. The first thing is the over/under bet. This involves placing a wager on the total number of rounds played in a match. The implied likelihood of the outcome is used by oddsmakers to set the price. A solid strategy is to bet on the over if a fighter has a history of early victories. When a fighter is constantly on the defensive, though, betting on the underdog is usually a solid strategy. For example, if a bet is placed under 1.5, the bettor wins if the match ends before the first round is over.

Then there are parlays, a type of sports betting that combines numerous bets into one. Odds on each individual fight, as opposed to point spreads, are used to calculate parlay payouts. Despite the higher potential payout, this sort of MMA wagering is fraught with greater danger.

Gambling on a winner via unanimous decision is the most common form in mixed martial arts. Most of the time, people place this wager in the hopes that their preferred fighter will earn a unanimous decision victory. Although the payout is not as high as it would be on a moneyline bet, those who do their research on the fighters and make an educated guess stand to win a lot of money. Although prop bets tend to be more niche than moneyline wagers, they are still something to think about before each fight.

Understanding the Odds

In American odds, the likelihood of winning is denoted by a positive or negative number, such as -210 or +1500. Any positive number indicates a higher likelihood of defeat for that fighter, while any negative number indicates a higher likelihood of victory.

Decimal odds are trickier, says the fighter, but he offers an example. If the odds on fighter A winning are 1.4, while the odds on fighter B winning are 2.5, the smaller number indicates a favorite, while larger ones indicate an underdog. 

Lastly, there are fractional odds. These can be written with either a slash (/) or a hyphen (-): for example, 5/1 or 5-1. (-). “For instance,” says the fighter, “if you bet $1 and the odds are 7/4, you would win $1.75. The odds are 7 to 4, so if you bet $1, you’ll win $1.75 for a total payoff of $2.75.”

The Bottom Line

“You both fight and bet,” says Milan, coming to his last question, “is it worth it?”

The fighter simply nods and says that fighting in mixed martial arts is a worthwhile pursuit. One can be their own boss, achieve their health objectives, and become famous and wealthy by taking this route. However, one must be prepared for the possibility of serious injury and the time and resources it will take to pursue this love. The training is hard, and one has to build their own brand to attract audiences and sell tickets. It’s show business as much as it is a sport.

Fighters have to maintain a proper win-loss record to be viable. They have to win more and lose less, or nobody will sponsor them or use them. At the end of the day, it’s all about filling seats because that’s how fighters and promoters make money.

“We all start because the art of fighting appeals to us,” says the fighter. “It’s pure. Only skill, no equipment. It’s all about discipline, and if done right, it makes us fighters better people. That’s why I started.”

Milan, having found what he’s looking for, sits and chats a while before heading home. He makes sure to refuse the invitation to take up fighting, though.

Conclusion

MMA has always been on the list of things Milan wanted to learn in real life; now, he gets to learn it in the form of betting http://topkasynoonline.com/zaklady-bukmacherskie/. Mr Rabszski is the chief editor for his passion project TopKasynoOnline. Check out their website for more content and listen to his podcast for his opinions and advice regarding kasyna online for the Poles. The website is a Poles for Poles project located in Warsaw at Zlota 59, 00-120. Di at +48 22 595 14 00. Listen to Mr Rabszski’s podcast at topkasynoonline.buzzsprout.com. As of this writing in September 2022, the legally recognized payment options in Poland are Blik, Prezelewy24, Paysafecard, Bitcoin, and Ecopayz.

Note as of September 2022: As gambling is illegal in Poland, the information presented here is intended solely for readers located outside of the country.