UFC 80 went down last Saturday in Newcastle, England with a relatively low amount of hype and only one household name on the card. Even though the card didn’t draw in casual UFC fans, they managed to surprise the online sportsbooks with the amount of money wagered on the afternoon event.
Brett Hanson, PR representative for Bodog, stated to MMABetting.com that “UFC 80 surprisingly exceeded our expectations. This card was not high on star power, but after all the betting was said and done we only saw about a 7% drop in overall betting action from the last non U.S. based UFC fight (UFC 75)”. UFC 75 was a highly touted and star studded fight card which had a large betting draw from U.S. bettors.
Nick Kalikas, head oddsmaker for the BetCRIS sportsbook network, stated that “UFC 77, 78 and 79 (all U.S. events) had only about 20% more betting action than UFC 80.” He also stated that “Even though their was a slight decline in overall action for the International event, the numbers are very promising. The popularity of UFC wagering continues to grow and pick up steam with every event.”
Besides being a non U.S. based event, there was also one of the bigger boxing matches of the year going on Saturday night with Roy Jones Jr. taking on Felix Trinidad. In regards to boxing, Kalekis also said that “With the exception of boxing’s mega fights such as Jones/Trinidad and De La Hoya/Mayweather, the UFC has surpassed boxing in overall action on a consistent basis.”
