UFC Betting Tips Canada

If you want to get to know how to bet on UFC matches legally from Canada then you’ve come to the right place bud!

We are gonna get you started out with our step by step guide on UFC betting from Canada and cover the following topics:

• UFC Betting Basics: The rules of UFC 
• A Brief History of MMA and the UFC
• Best Legal Online Bookmakers in Canada for UFC Betting
• How Betting Odds Work in the UFC
• UFC Prop Bets
• UFC betting tips And the Best UFC Betting Strategies

Before you get started on UFC betting it’s vital for you to know how MMA works.
It’s important to do this so that you can make prudent decisions that can help you bet on UFC profitably.

In order to do this we recommend you to 

• Learn about the rules of the UFC
• Know about the fighters
• How betting odds work in the UFC

But don’t worry because we’ve got you covered and we’ll be walking you through these things in our guide so that you can get started on UFC betting. Once you are through with our UFC betting guide our UFC betting tips, you’ll be able to make calculated bets and make prudent decisions while betting on legal online bookmakers in Canada.

So are you ready to start your journey into the cool world of UFC betting? Let’s get started.

Best Legal Bookmakers in Canada For UFC Betting

Bookmakers in Canada are only allowed to feature Parlay bets on their sportsbook.This significantly reduces your options when it comes to UFC betting from Canada. However, you can legally gamble online and place bets with online bookmakers as long as these casinos are outside Canadian shores.

We recommend you to check out the online casinos and bookmakers below that are based in Malta and regulated by the Malta Gaming Authority.

UFC Betting Basics: The rules of UFC 

You need to know the rules of the cage before you even start learning about betting on UFC fights. UFC fights are bloody and aren’t for the faint of heart.

While UFC fights are not fights to the death and many precautions are taken to protect fighters, knockouts are a pretty common occurrence and serious injuries are too. Here are some of the rules of UFC matches:

• Fighters must wear mouthguards. UFC fights must take place in a ring or a fenced area often referred to as a cage.
• Male fighters must wear groin protectors and female fighters must wear a protective chest piece. 
• All fighters must wear gloves. These gloves have to weigh between four to six ounces.
• A UFC match lasts for five rounds. Each round has a limit of five minutes. There is a one minute rest in between each round.
• A UFC match has three judges who view the match from outside the ring and view it from different angles and vantage points. They score the fighter’s performance on a 10 point scale. Points are awarded based on the fighter’s technical ability such as striking, grappling,aggressiveness, defense,control of the cage etc.
• Every UFC bout has a referee inside the ring and he is not one of the three judges
• There are 31 different fouls in UFC. A referee will disqualify a fighter if he or she commits a series of these fouls.
  Here is a list of fouls in the UFC:
  -Spitting on the opponent
  -Kicking the opponent on the head while he/she is down
  -Pulling the opponent’s hair
  -Biting the opponent
  -Fish Hooking
  -Holding the fence
  -Grabbing the clavicle of the opponent
  -Head butting
  -Small joint manipulation
  -Eye gouging
  -Groin attacks
  -Interference by the corner
  -Kicking to the kidney with a heel
  -Clawing, pinching or twisting the flesh
  -Kicking the head of a grounded opponent
  -Kneeing the head of a grounded opponent
  -Throwing opponent out of ring/fighting area
  -Holding the shorts or gloves of an opponent
  -Striking to the spine or the back of the head
  -Attacking an opponent on or during the break
  -Striking downward using the point of the elbow
  -Using abusive language in fenced ring/fighting area
  -Flagrantly disregarding the instructions of the referee
  -Spiking an opponent to the canvas on his head or neck
  -Attacking an opponent who is under the care of the referee
  -Attacking an opponent after the bell has sounded the end of the round
  -Putting a finger into any orifice or any cut or laceration of an opponent
  -Applying any foreign substance to the hair or body to gain an advantage
  -Engaging in any unsportsmanlike conduct that causes injury to an opponent
  -Throat strikes of any kind, including, without limitation, grabbing the trachea
  -Timidity, including, without limitation, avoiding contact with an opponent, intentionally or consistently dropping the mouthpiece or faking an injury

Your UFC predictions can be affected by the fact that some UFC fighters tend to skirt the lines of these rules.

These players can create and modify their fighting styles based on these and knowing about these rules can help you gain a better understanding of a fighter’s technique and how it might affect how judges might score a match involving these fighters.

This will also help you to make more accurate predictions on UFC matches and UFC odds.

The difference between MMA and the UFC

People often mistakenly believe that there aren’t many differences between MMA and UFC and often don’t realize that when they are talking about Mixed Martial Arts they are actually talking about the UFC.

This raises the question, are there any major differences between the MMA and the UFC?

MMA is a sport and not a league. The UFC on the other hand is a league that organizes commercial fights. In simple words we can say that UFC is to MMA what NHL is to Hockey.

Everyone can become a Mixed Martial Art practitioner or enthusiast but not everyone can compete on the professional level in the UFC.

All UFC fights must obey the rules we mentioned earlier but MMA rules can vary by a great extent from place to place.

In fact, some MMA tournaments and fights can have very few regulations which can make these contests a lot more violent and dangerous.

An example would be Japan. In Japan fighters can continue to kick a downed opponent on the head which is a serious violation of UFC rules. That’s why if you want to bet on the UFC, you should know the difference between MMA and the UFC and know about UFC rules.

How did the MMA and the UFC start?

There is no particular event or data that we can point accurately to and definitely say was the start of MMA. That being said, we can point out some events and track the growth of the sport.

One such event was a publicity stunt involving one of the greatest boxers of all time Muhammad Ali and a famous Japanese professional wrestler, Antonio Inoki on June 26,1976. The fight was to last for 15 rounds.

It wasn’t a very underwhelming fight to say the least. Neither Ali nor Inoki seemed to be aware it was supposed to be a real fight until the final round when both of them were informed that it was indeed a real fight. Even though the fight was ridiculous, it started the groundwork for Mixed Martial Arts.

The UFC has similar origins however unlike this main event, it was better organized and planned. Professional fighters from all over the world who were experts in different martial arts enthusiastically joined the championship to show off their skills and to prove the superiority of their respective fighting styles. In the first editions of the UFC were very violent and had few rules. The major rules were:

• No attacks to the groin
• No eye gouging
• No biting

The fights were no holds barred, had no rounds and the fighters would fight until a KO (knockout) or submission. 

The first edition of the UFC was held on November 12 1993 in Denver Colorado.The event was broadcast live on pay-per-view and later released on home video.

It wasn’t until the 15th edition of the UFC that a few more rules were introduced. The 15th edition of the UFC took place on October 17, 1995 in St. Louis, Mississippi. The new rules in UFC 15 were:

• No Headbutts
• No Groin strikes
• No strikes to the back of the neck and head
• No knees to a downed opponent
• No heads stomps
• No kicks to a downed opponent
• No small joint manipulation
• No hair pulling

The next major change in rules would take place during the 21st edition of the UFC which was known as UFC 21. UFC 21 was held on July 16, 1999 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

These new rules included the introduction of reducing bouts to a set number of rounds.

• Preliminary bouts now consisted of two rounds of five minutes each
• Main card bouts would have three rounds of five minutes each
• Championship rounds would consist of five rounds of five minutes each.

UFC 21 was also the first edition to include the 10-point must system. This system was used in Boxing to adjudicate the winner of a bout.

It was not until 2001 that the UFC as we know it today was established in terms of rules. Dana White,a professional UFC fighter was responsible for this initiative and helped to establish the unified rules of MMA in that year.

How Do Betting Odds Work in the UFC

Now that you have familiarized yourself with the rules of the UFC let’s move on to the next UFC betting tip, understanding how betting odds work in the UFC.

Understanding UFC betting odds can help you understand how they work and how you can use them to your advantage while betting on UFC fights.

The basics of how odds work in UFC is pretty much the same as other sports, the underdogs will have a higher number which will generally have a plus sign.

Let’s say there is a fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor.  Nurmagomedov is one of the most successful undefeat UFC fighter in the welterweight class and his fighting style which is inspired by the Brazilian martial art,Sambo, helped him to defeat many strong fighters including McGregor in the previous meeting.

In this case, Nurmagomedov would be the clear favorite and McGregor would be the underdog. So bookmakers might set odds such as:

• Nurmagomedov -150
• McGregor +110

What does this mean? This means that in a theoretical match between these UFC fighters, if you bet $100 on McGregor you would win $110. If you decide to bet on Nurmagomedov, you would need to bet $150 to win another $100.

Just like other sports UFC betting odds can be presented in other formats as well such as the decimal format which is popular in Europe.

In the decimal format the odds for the two fighters would be:

• Nurmagomedov 1.67
• McGregor 2.1

This means that for every 1$ you bet on McGregor you will get a total $2.1. Another way to look at it is that you will 2.1 times your bet amount if you bet on McGregor, so If you bet $100 on McGregor you will win $210, if you bet $100 on Nurmagomedov you will win $167.

Now that you know how UFC odds work, it’s time to move on to the different types of bets on UFC matches

UFC MONEYLINE

Moneyline bets are also called match winner bets. They are the simplest kinds of UFC bets. All you have to do is pick the fighter who will win the match and place your bet on that fighter. The UFC betting on this type of bets are not very impressive. We recommend you to split your budget and place multiple bets or use combination bets. If you are just starting out and focusing on moneyline bets, you should consider placing your bets on odds of 2.0 or more.

Over/under Bets in UFC Betting

Just like most sports, UFC betting also features over/ under bets. Over/under bets in UFC are relatively easy bets in our opinion. This is how over/under betting works in UFC. 

You are asked to either bet on over 2.5 rounds or under 2.5 rounds. This essentially means you are betting on whether a fight will be decided in under 3 rounds or not.

So if you bet on over 2.5 rounds, you are betting that the fight will be decided in 3 rounds or more, if you bet on under 2.5 rounds you are betting that the match will be decided in 2 rounds or less.

Sometimes, bookmakers might set this to over or under 1.5 rounds especially if both or one of the fighters have a history of ending fights quickly within the first round.

Over or under 3.5 rounds can also be offered by bookmakers and these types of over/under ufc odds are often popular in championship matches.

UFC PROP BETS

What are prop bets?
Prop bets are short for proposition bets. In sports betting it essentially means that you bet on whether or not a particular event will take a place during the game. In Canada, bookmakers are only legally allowed to allow prop bets.

When it comes to prop bets in UFC the most popular bet offered by bookmakers is the “Go the Distance” bet. This basically means that the match will go all the way and all the fighters will fight till all the five rounds are over.

There are other prop bets like winning methods bets in the UFC that we have mentioned below

UFC ROUND BETTING / TOTAL ROUNDS

In round betting or total rounds bets in UFC you bet on the round when they match will be won and who will win.

All you have to do is to pick the round when the fighter you are betting on to win the match will win the UFC match.

UFC METHOD OF VICTORY BETS

There are four methods in which a UFC fighter can win a UFC fight:

• Knockout (KO)
  A KO is basically a situation where one fighter wins by knocking the other fighter unconscious.
• Technical Knockout (TKO)
  A TKO is similar to knockout but in this situation the other fighter is conscious but unable to get up and continue the fight.

• Submission
  When a fighter can force his/her opponent in a hold or choke and forces him/her to tap out the fighter wins by a submission.

• Decision 
  When all the five rounds are finished before either fighter can win by a knockout or submission, the judges have to decide the winner.

The method of victory bets can be quite lucrative if you do your research on the fighters and place your bets accordingly.

If you want to learn how to bet on UFC fights, you need to know your fighters. These men and women follow different disciplines, and each one prefers to end their matches uniquely.

Try to get a good idea of how each fighter prefers to end a matchup. It’s one of the best UFC betting tips we can give.

UFC LIVE BETTING AND WHERE TO PLACE THESE WAGERS

Like most other sports you can bet on Live UFC fights. Live UFC fights are intense  so before you are about to place your first live UFC bet, we have one simple piece of advice for you, prepare.

UFC matches are very unpredictable and can be decided very quickly. This makes live betting on UFC very risky.

However, if you know quite a bit about the sport and follow UFC fights on the regular and can make calculated bets then by all means, live betting on the UFC can be very lucrative for you.

The Best UFC BETTING TIPS And Strategies

Now that you know the basics of how to get started with UFC betting here are some UFC betting tips and strategies that could help you bet profitably on the UFC that could help you get a bang for your buck:

KNOW YOUR FIGHTERS

Do you remember all the different types of bets we talked about earlier? Don’t you think that knowing about the different fighters and their stats like how they win their matches like KOs,submissions or decisions or at what rounds they win their matches or their fighting style and their success rates with players different fighters style can help you make more calculated bets instead of shooting in the dark?

When you are starting out with betting on UFC its easy to get lost in the details so here are the few stats we recommend you to focus on when it comes to analyzing fighters in a UFC fight you are about to bet on:

1. Fight record 
2. Method of wins
3. What round the fighter usually wins in
4. Fighting style and the fighter’s performance against fighters with different fighting styles

You can find 

WATCH OUT FOR SOUTHPAWS

If you’ve seen a lot of boxing or martial arts movies you must’ve seen many references on southpaws. Most fighters are right handed and are used to fighting other fighters who are right handed. However, southpaws are left handed and their fighting stance can throw off even the most experienced fighters.

This is one of the reasons why Conor McGregor is such a successful fighter and a favorite for many fans of the sports as well as people who bet on the UFC.

DON’T DISMISS UNDERDOGS

Betting on the favorites might seem like the safe choice, but you won’t make much bank unless you’re putting down a few hundred dollars. On the other hand placing a bet on an underdog comes with its own set of risks.

 That being said, as we mentioned earlier underdogs often spring surprises in the UFC.  We recommend you to study a fighter’s track record and judge them on that rather than how new they are to the sport.