At UFC 235 this past weekend in the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, veteran welterweight fighter Robbie Lawler nearly pounded former Olympic wrestler and 2/1 favorite Ben Askren into a first-round TKO success. But Askren, making his first UFC look, managed to survive Lawler’s early onslaught of body and head shots, and about two minutes after, at 3:20 in the initial round, finished the comeback, ending it with a bulldog choke.
Respected referee Herb Dean saw Lawler’s arm limp while he tried to extricate himself from the choke, causing Dean to stop the fight in what goes down as a entry win for Askren. While controversial and unlucky for Lawler (and his backers), it was understandable, and also the popular Lawler immediately turned from aggrieved to praising Dean and expressing his own understanding (transcript here.)
The NFL is the king of U.S sports betting, but mixed martial arts offers something different, in some ways much better and more intriguing, and indeed controversial occasionally, same as every sport. Certain occasions, even to get a marginally market sport now in its first year of a supply deal on ESPN platforms, can create the gambling handle seen in a good NFL game.
“Everyone understands a fight”
Exposure to more mainstream audiences via ESPN and FOX Sports 1, through a previous deal, continues to increase MMA’s profile. To get to this point, UFC and other promotions such as Bellator have embraced and understood the engagement value of sports betting.
“The UFC was on the forefront of sport wagering content,” Jason Simbal, vice president of risk management for CG Technology, told Sports Handle. “They chased it by adding odds on the sites on telecasts. Along with the announcers will mention the betting favorites during the fights. Also they have their own produced betting show that airs before every pay-per-view on UFC Fight Pass, which helps.”
The PGA Tour, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, and National Hockey League likewise have”evolved” since the Supreme Court struck down the 1992 federal ban on full scale sports wagering out Nevada. Every one of the commissioners of these leagues now tout the virtues of greater involvement anyhow sports wagering, manufacture new monetization opportunities, and delight in the ones that have come.
But while each of those leagues, particularly MLB, attempt to build new sports gambling bridges using proprietary Statcast characters, as an example, there’s no learning curve to begin gambling on combined martial arts.
“I think it comes down to it being a fight. And what I mean by that is that when you’re managing a lot of other sports, you are dealing with lots of factors, the principles of soccer, baseball, basketball,” veteran MMA writer-reporter Damon Martin told Sports Handle. “And there is a guttural instinct in everyone when it comes down to it.
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