MMA Gambling Business on the Rise

From Market Watch:

Lesnar wasn't the only winner: It was also a good payoff for the House. In addition to their cut of the tickets, beer, hot dogs and merchandise - along with the extra room, restaurant and casino revenue the event brings in - more than a few fans will take a flutter on their favored fighters.

"It is not necessarily the level of cash a big boxing match will bring in, but the betting on MMA has been really strong the last two years," said Jay Rood, director of sports and race books at MGM Mirage. "It has really started to flourish."

He said the book will usually out up just five or six fights on a card that may run to a dozen because there are "so many unknown guys that there is not a lot to draw from. It is a lot harder to put the odds on these fights."

As far as making the right picks, Rood said "we do OK but we have taken it on the chin occasionally. A couple of times, it came down to the last fight. These fans are sharp; the people who follow this know their stuff."

Indeed most of them do. Betting on MMA fights can be difficult even for those of us who spend every waking hour study all of the various ins and outs of the fighters, their camps, histories, footage and whatever other relevant information we can unearth. For me, I find I'm able to pool my risk by betting the entire card and coincidentally, trying to cover that many fights accurately has forced me to learn more about fighters that I otherwise would never have known anything about. I'm sure different tactics work for different aims.

I'd also say it is such an unreal relief that those of us who are fans or part of the sport of MMA don't have to deal with the stigmas of gambling. Fight sport is mercifully free from self-important moral preening on this issue. And we've luckily been able to thus far avoid internal betting scandals like those affecting MLB and the NBA that have more to do with personal malfeseance than something inherently regrettable about gambling.