After a hiatus of more than two years from the sport, the UFC’s biggest star Conor McGregor is back in action, looking to reclaim his lightweight title from undefeated Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in Las Vegas on October 6. The champ, Nurmagomedov, opened as the betting favorite at -160 with the challenger, McGregor, coming back as the +120 underdog.
These two warriors have a lot of bad blood stemming from an altercation between Khabib and Conor’s friend and teammate Artem Lobov before UFC 223 in New York in April. Now the highly anticipated fight is official and sportsbooks such as have been accepting wagers on this upcoming bout.
How to bet McGregor vs Khabib
When it comes to betting for the first time, the odds you most commonly hear are on the moneyline. The Sportsbook moneyline had Khabib as the -160 favorite, while McGregor came back as the +120 underdog. Basically, moneyline is a fancy term for who is going to win.
But what exactly does -160 and +120 mean? Well, for the minus-money, you would have to bet that much to make $100 so in the case of this scrap, you would bet $160 to make a profit of $100 for a total of $260. Betting on McGregor at +120 means that if you bet $100, you would profit an additional $120 for a total of $220. On a smaller scale, for every dollar you bet on McGregor, you could profit $1.20, whereas you would need to bet $1.60 to profit $1 if you bet on Khabib.
The reason for this is oddsmakers give the edge to Khabib to win and they want you to bet more for a smaller reward. On the other hand, if you bet on Conor, who oddsmakers believe will lose, you can make more of a profit if he pulls off the upset.
So far this year when it comes to underdogs vs favorites, the underdogs have won 36.1 percent of fights, with the biggest upset by Paul Craig at +535 (for every dollar you wagered, you would have profited $5.35) over Magomed Akalaev.
With the Sportsbook odds of -160 for Khabib and +120 for Conor, sportsbooks anticipate a close fight. For comparison, when Conor fought Floyd Mayweather Jr. in last year’s superfight, the undefeated boxer opened at -800 with the UFC star coming back at +500, which shows a huge disparity and a more lopsided view of the bout.
Where to bet McGregor vs Khabib
Choosing where to lay your money for McGregor vs Khabib on October 6 really depends on where you are and what kind of betting you plan on doing. If you will be taking in the fight first-hand at T-Mobile Arena, you have a vast selection of Vegas sportsbooks to make your wagers with.
Meanwhile, for the rest of us who will be ordering the PPV, along with some pizza, or going out to a bar to watch this fight, online sportsbooks are where you’re going to be doing your betting. Sportsbooks such as will have your moneyline wagers if you want to choose who will win straight up, while other books such as have options for the more advanced bettor, like being able to choose whether the fight will go OVER/UNDER 2.5 rounds. Currently, that bet has OVER 2.5 rounds at -110 (profit of $0.91 for every dollar you wager) and the UNDER coming back at -130.
Ways to bet McGregor vs Khabib
The moneyline wager has already been discussed and we briefly touched on the OVER/UNDER for how many rounds the fight will last, but there are typically plenty of other prop bets with some crazy odds. For example, as we draw closer to the event, you will have the opportunity to lay money on exactly when the fight will be ended, whether it be by Conor in the third round, Khabib in the second, going the full distance or any other outcome you may see.
Additionally, and this may be a safer bet than wagering on which round the fight will end in, you could choose the method of victory. For instance, you could take Conor to win by KO/TKO/DQ, which has been the result in 18 of his 21 fights, or maybe you like Khabib by decision, since 10 of his 26 wins have come in that fashion.
If you bet which round the fight will end in, you can typically find odds of +500 (5-1) or greater, while choosing the method of victory you can find in the area of +150 (1.5-1) or greater if the moneyline isn’t doing it for you.
As we inch closer to the fight, there will be many more prop bets that will come up and there will be plenty of line changes as well. Keep up to date by following OddsShark’s Twitter account for recent updates and special offers.
Best Books for where you live
The return to the Octagon for Conor McGregor has been what many fight fans have been waiting for and an undefeated competitor will stand across from him in Khabib Nurmagomedov. No matter where you reside, we have the best online sportsbooks for many different regions below:
