Are you a sports betting fan who loves the atmosphere of the big fight? Well, boxing betting is the thing for you!
Boxing is widely regarded as the most noble sport there is. Men and women go through months of training to spar in the ring and deliver those knockout blows.
We’ll give you boxing betting tips and help you understand the biggest markets, so that you’ll be able to master this sport from outside the ring.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Boxing Rules
- How to win a boxing match
- How to bet on boxe
- Betting on unconfirmed fights
- In-play boxing betting
Boxing Rules
Boxing is a combat sport where two people face each other and fight with fists in the boxing ring. Wearing protective gloves, they aim to deliver punches to the head, chest and body, within the strict rules of boxing.
A professional boxing match consists of a maximum of 12 three-minute rounds, with a referee in the ring alongside the boxers. Matches are scored by three judges at ringside, who will decide who wins and loses the contest if it goes the distance.
Professional boxers are divided into different weight classes, where the most usual ones are featherweight, lightweight, welterweight, middleweight and heavyweight. In-between these, you’ll find another 12 boxing weight classes often starting with ‘Super' or ‘Light’.
Both boxers have their own ring corner where they’ll get taken care of, and get some rest and advice from their coaches and staff in-between the rounds.
Each boxer earns a score in each round, which is usually 9 or 10. If a judge believes one boxer won the round, they will earn a 10 and the opponent a 9. Tallied up over 12 rounds, a boxer can win ‘on points’ if they have earned more points than their opponent.
The resultant score may therefore be sometime like 118-111, 115-115, 117-112. In this case, the former boxer would win on the count of two of the three judges.
How to win a boxing match
A boxer can win his or her match via a number of ways. The main one — and the one most boxing betting fans will bet on — is by knockout. This is when one of the boxers has been knocked down and is unable to continue to fight. The referee will count to 10 and if the boxer cannot prove they’re fit to continue, then they lose.
A technical knockout (TKO) occurs when a boxer has such a severe injury — maybe a cut on the eye or has dislocated their own shoulder — that they cannot continue. Judges will often see if a boxer can defend themselves before judging if a TKO is required. If a fighter is knocked down three times in one round, this can lead to a TKO.
A third way of winning a boxing match is on points. As mentioned earlier, this is when the judges total up the number of points collected through the 12 rounds and work out a winner from there. Sometimes the points are even, meaning the match is a draw. And points wins can prove controversial, with boxing a very subjective sport!
The fourth way a boxer can win a match is if his opponent’s team ‘throw in the towel’. This is effectively when the coach or trainer doesn’t think their boxer can continue, or will hurt themselves too much by doing so.
Boxers can also be disqualified. If, for example, they deliver regular punches ‘below the belt’ and do not adhere to a referee’s warnings, then the official can call for an early end to the fight. Boxers can also be disqualified for attacking their opponent with something other than their fists, such as kicking, biting and spitting.
How to Bet on Boxing
Unibet offers a wide range of interesting boxing bets for you to place, so that you can witness the intense experience and action of real boxing. So let’s have a look at some of our best boxing betting tips.
Winner bets
Betting on the winner of a boxing match is by far the most popular bet type in boxing betting. Match odds works in the same way as when you bet on football, as there is an 1X2 betting model. On this market, you simply bet on the outcome of a boxing match. You bet on the first boxer (1) in the fixture winning, a draw (X) or the second boxer (2) winning.
Draws are quite rare in boxing, so betting on X will likely see high odds. And there is usually a heavy favourite for the fight — especially if it is a title fight where the resining champion is defending his or her belts.
Over/Under
Another popular type of bet is the over/under betting model, where you can bet on the total rounds. For example, if you bet on +7.5 total rounds in a match, you’ll win your bet if the boxing fight lasts for at least eight rounds. Equally, if you think a match will be stopped via KO, TKO or the towel before the sixth round, you could bet on -5.5 total rounds.
Winning method
Many boxing betting fans like to bet on the winning method (such as KO, TKO etc.), as well as the round in which the fight could end. This is particularly useful for boxing betting when there is a heavy favourite to win the match.
If, for example, cruiserweight Murat Gassiev fights Noel Gevor, the former might be priced at 2/1 to win the fight. But he could be 9/1 to win in the fourth round. Those latter odds may be more interesting for a punter looking to earn a greater potential return on their bet. However, with the bigger odds comes a greater risk of the bet not coming off.
Series and long-term bets
Here at Unibet we also offer outright betting on boxing tournaments to our players where you, for example, can bet on the winner of World Boxing Super Series. This could be seen as a long-term bet, depending on when you place it, as you can follow the boxer you placed a bet on in multiple fights, in the hope that they will end up as the winner of a specific tournament.
Betting on uncorfirmed fights
Boxing outside the ring is a negotiation game. There is always talk of what will be the next big fight in boxing, yet the huge money involved in the sport means arranging fights take months.
This is a frustration for many boxing fans who just want to watch the best fighters face each other in the ring. So here at Unibet we’ve created a market for unconfirmed fights that punters can still bet on.
It means that if there is chatter about a fight being close to confirmation, then you can already bet on who you think will win the bout. And don’t worry, we always set a time limit on the unconfirmed fights, so if they’re not settled by a certain date then the bet is void and you get your stake back.
In-play boxing betting
Unibet also offers punters the chance to bet in-play on boxing. We have all the biggest fights across the world covered. And in-play betting is a great way to bet on boxing because you can make more reasoned decisions about how you think the fight will go, while it’s actually happening!
For example, if you’re watching a fight between two Middleweight stars and one is sent to the canvas in the first round, their odds on winning the match will balloon. But shrewd boxing betting fans may think this is the perfect time to ‘play the odds’ and back that fallen fighter to win later in the match.
We’ve seen it on numerous occasions where a boxer looks down-and-out, only to heroically come back swinging and deliver a knockout blow to his or her opponent!
Equally, if you think the match isn’t going to last much longer, you could quickly place a bet on it all being over in Round Two. Odds on that happening will likely have shrunk, but that’s why players much use their judgement to work out when is the right time to bet.
Remember, boxing matches take place throughout the year, with the biggest fights coming from Las Vegas and New York in the USA, as well as Wembley in the UK. Many fights take place at night — and for European fans those bouts in the USA can stretch into the early hours of the morning due to time differences