Since BetUS will give the odds on the fight - one of the odds given will be their prediction on the how long the fight will go - it pays to know which round will be the critical one. Knowing the round that BetUS gives, the players betting will then choose whether they think it’s going to go over, meaning they think the fight will go longer than the expected round or they bet the under - which is when they think the fight will go less rounds than the expected round. Sometimes, you can earn negative returns in which if you bet 100 dollars, if you win, you will only get 50 dollars. On the other hand, if you bet optimally with solid betting technique and analysis then a possible possibility for you may be that if you bet 100 dollars, for example, you will earn a profit of 150 dollars. Don’t worry to much on the numbers here though because this is just a theoretical assumption and analysis - the actual betting is much easier than this.

So, how do you bet if you want to do MMA and UFC gambling style bets? First, before you make any rash decisions that can put a dent in your gambling money, familiarize yourself with the nature of the game and particular casino you’ll be betting at. For example, if you’re interested in betting MMA at BetUS, roll through the casino, read the help screens and take a look before you start staking any money.

Once you’re acclimated with your particular casino, you should at least know the basic rules and the duration of each fight. If it is a title match, it’s usually up to five rounds but if it’s just an undercard, it usually lasts for only three rounds. If you know how to use these valuable bits of knowledge, then you can analyze the situation more intensely that you are in and the bet that you’ll be doing. Next step is to analyze the stats of the fighters. You should know, based on their previous fights, how long they lasted in the ring. This is super-helpful for MMA betting because it’s going to help you decide whether you should bet on under or over round odds. If you know well how they perform and their stamina, you can predict with a reasonable guess how long they’ll last in the ring. This is a vital key element in choosing your bet because the consideration of player attributes is crucial to winning consistently in UFC betting. Thankfully, analyzing these stats are becoming easier and easier to do because you can read the reviews of their previous matches or after match analysis of the game at MMA blogs and forums. From their, you can make your decision where to bet.

Now that you know the most important things to consider when placing your MMA bets, you’re now ready to post one up. Keep in mind that BetUS is one of the only sportsbooks that’s going to give you the odds of whether to bet under or over. For our American friends out there, it also helps that they’re open to United States players. Once you have your information in place and stats in front of you then just hit up your favorite sportsbook and place your bet. After that, just relax, watch the fight with a nice cold one and wait for the result. If you ever fail on your bets, always remember to keep in mind the key elements of placing MMA bets and try to think if you maybe missed an important aspect of MMA betting. If you really do feel like you bet perfectly and you did nothing wrong, think again. If you really analyze your betting more closely, then you’ll get ahead in MMA betting and you’ll be that much closer to success in the MMA betting game.

Resources:: Full Tilt Poker - Join More Than 95,000 Poker Players Playing Online!

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One of the things you’ve got to keep in mind is that almost everyone that gambles on sportsbooks has a certain system or style they use when they have to choose the winning bet. Obviously, there’s no one perfect method to handicap. What you’ve got to do is find a way that’s going to work for you - this is the most key aspect of betting on fights or teams. A lot of bettors out there think they’re being “flexible” by just jumping around with various styles, systems, and betting theories - but in the end they end up being on the wrong end of the bet and lose big money.

How to Use The Solid Starter Strategy

So let’s say you’re a beginner to sportsbook betting. I’ll give you a solid strategy for any beginner to this. Here it is: find out what most people are betting on and bet the opposite. Yup. Take a look around the sports betting world. More than 95% of sportsbook gamblers end up losing. So what’s the best option? Go against the popular opinion and you’ll come out a winner more often than not in the long run. Of course, as a beginner to this it’s going to be real hard for you to go against the grain and bet against established teams or fighters that everyone and their mother is hyping up like mad. Trust me, in the end you’ll be the laughing and 95% of the betting population will be crying.

I’ll give you a run-down of how to implement this strategy into your routine. Make sure to keep it locked to all the top online casino blogs, subscribe to the email feed, subscribe via RSS reader as well to make sure you get up-to-the-minute updates. Check out magazine columnists that report on fights and sporting events that make predictions. Write down their predictions for the fight/event - you might want to use a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for this. If it seems like they’re really going for a particular team or fighter make a note of that too.

Go to your favorite online casino forums to see what Joe Gambler thinks about the fight/match/game. You’ll find posters talking about who they like in the match. If lots of forum posters are talking trash like, “This guy is gonna get killed tonight” or, “Bet everything you got on that team” take note of that as well. Just get the general vibe of what most people think.

Go to your favorite sportsbook to check out the odds. Recommended sportsbooks are BetUS and Sportsbook.

Bet the favorite if the underdog is getting hyped. If the general consensus seems to be that everyone is liking the underdog, then bet big on the favorite. A lot of times you’ll see this in boxing matches and MMA fights with headline fighters - this is a perfect opportunity to use this strategy.

Bet the underdog if the favorite is getting hyped. If the general consensus seems to be that everyone is liking the major favorite, then place a smallish bet on the underdog.

For the rest, make your bets according to your general vibe and educated intuition on the match. Take into account the action you’re seeing on other matches. Try to keep your betting on underdogs and small favorites - for example in MMA fights, generally stay away from favorites that are higher than -300.

You can use this strategy in Mixed Martial Arts betting, boxing matches, football games, basketball games, hockey, baseball, soccer (futbol), and other spots.

Try it and let me know what happens!

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The problem with the “favorite team” strategy is that a person’s favorite team is not always the winner. For example, in the NBA, let’s say your favorite team is the Miami Heat. You can’t always expect Dwyane Wade to pull out a victory for them and win every game. Plus, just betting like that is blind betting, you might as well throw darts at a board or have a monkey pick the games for you. You must understand that any team can lose any night, so betting on your favorite team isn’t really an advisable sportsbook betting strategy.

What does work in sportsbook betting, is using sportsbook systems based on numerical odds. For example, in sports like Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), there is a system that lets us see the chances of a specific fighter winning that particular match you’re thinking of betting on. Many columnists also make their own predictions of the match at sites like BetUS and Sportsbook.

Getting the Odds Right

In sports betting, there are odds - for example, in MMA, you can view these in order to know which fighter is the favorite. Bettors use these odds to determine which fighter they’ll bet on - the favorite or the underdog. Usually, the favorite is the one that ends up winning the match. If you want to become a hardcore sportsbook bettor, or if you already are one, you need to come up with a solid sportsbook betting strategy before making a bet. When reviewing your strategy options, there are lots of factors to consider.

One of the most important things you can do to get an edge in sportsbook betting is getting all the information you can get your hands on about the fight and the fighters involved or the teams. You can get this information by reading sportsbook blog posts on the internet, reading the predictions of top-rated sportsbook columnists and reading sportsbook forums on the internet. Most of the highly-regarded odds on games or MMA fights come from BetUS and Sportsbook. Once you have this information, now you have the right data to support you choosing the favorite or underdog in a particular match. Generally, uninformed gamblers tend to pick the wrong winning team or fighter - maybe they choose their fighter just due to the guy’s cool nickname or because they like his hairstyle or the team has hot cheerleaders or some other ridiculous way to bet on sportsbook matches. If you do this, this is going to cost you huge money in the long-run.

To really know your sportsbook terms, you need to know what a moneyline is. The moneyline is the term used for the odds of a match. For example, in MMA, when the moneyline of a fighter has a negative sign (example: Tito Ortiz: -145) this usually means that that fighter is the favorite or has the higher probability of winning. If the fighter has a positive sign on his moneyline (example: Rashad Evans +170) this usually means that he is the underdog.

Keep this in mind though, an underdog could still have a negative sign! The fact though, is that the underdogs will have less moneyline than the favorite.

A sportsbook betting system you’re going to want to utilize as you learn about educated sportsbook betting is to convert the moneyline to a percentage. For example, let’s take Tito Ortiz at -145. The -145 means that you would win $1.45 for every $1 you bet. Converting sportsbook moneyline odds to percentages really comes in handy when both fighters have negative signs on their moneyline.

How to convert a moneyline to a percentage for a favorite:

Amount you need to bet to win a dollar / (Amount you need to bet to win a dollar + $1) = Favorites Percentage

Let’s say the favorite has a -400 moneyline. In this case you need to bet $4 to win $1. The formula would look like this: $4 / ($4 + $1) and it is equivalent to 80%.

How to convert a moneyline to a percentage for an underdog:

1/(Amount won when wagering $1 + $1) = Underdogs Percentage

Let’s say the underdog has a +300 moneyline. In this case if you bet $1 you’ll win $3. The formula would look like this: 1/($3 +$1) and it is equivalent to 25%.

You might be asking why does 80% + 25% add up to 105% and not 100%? Sportsbooks always put “juice” on their odds - this is what the sportsbook will be winning from the betting, it’s their cut, their “commission”.

The best way to use this moneyline-to-percentage formula is by first deciding in your head what percentage chance do you think these fighters or teams have to win. Then check the odds at sportsbook betting sites like BetUS and Sportsbook and convert it to a percentage. If there is more than a 5% difference from your guess to the sportsbook odds, then you know you have a good bet on your hands.

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If you want to bet on a MMA fight, then there are things that you should always consider. It’s not just right and proper for you to just keep betting blindly without knowing what in heck you’re doing. Always try to strategize and plan out your moves before you start releasing money at your sportsbook like a crazed MMA madman. After all, while MMA is fun to watch, always remember what you’re there to do – win money by betting intelligently. To do this you need to know what to do.

So, here are a couple of tips and reminders for you to follow when betting on a particular Mixed Martial Arts fight.

Don’t Bet on the Heavy Favorite

Try not to bet too often on the heavy favorite of the crowd. If you are new to online MMA betting, you’re going to want to usually stay away from the fighter who most people would think would win in a landslide. Going for the heavy favorite is a huge mistake for first-time MMA betting. Stay away from these fighters if you want to keep your bankroll healthy! It’s recommended to bet on MMA fighters that are up to a -300 favorite and not those fighters who are above a -400 favorite. Just keep on betting on those fighters who are decent favorites but not these ridiculous favorites.

Don’t Bet on Every Fight

The next piece of MMA gambling advice I’ll give you is that you should not try and bet on every fight you see available. I know when you’re a first time MMA bettor, you won’t hesitate on betting – you get caught up in the fun of it and you just bet blindly and drop your money on every MMA event that you find exciting. Don’t do this as you’re gonna find yourself without funds fast! In fact, there are so many MMA fights – hundreds even – that many times there is no real discernable edge between the fighters involved. If you can’t really make out which fighter has the edge over the other, then why would you want to risk your money on that fight? If you want to stay afloat and alive in this game, try to discern the best fights that you think give you the best chance to win. If you still want to bet on every fight in a event, then just wager a small amount of money. This way, it wouldn’t hurt your bankroll if you lose on even a large portion of the fights that you bet on.

Give the Underdogs a Chance

The next piece of advice I’ll give you is to look to the underdogs if you want to win long-term. If you find yourself talking to an expert in sportsbook betting, then one of the things that they will all tell you is that you need to focus more on the underdogs that those who are heavy favorites. The reason? Because of the ratio of wins to losses of the underdogs and favorites. This means that there is a huge amount of juice on the favorites, so you’re gonna have to win very consistently if you’re betting on the favorites. Instead, if you bet on underdogs, you’re going to win much more on each fight and thus you won’t have to win that often in order to come up on top.  It’s human nature really. When you are involved in betting in MMA fights, most people are going to bet on the well-known champions of the game, thus driving up the odds for the favorite. In order to even this out, by betting on the underdogs, since the bets of most people are with the top dogs, you’ll be making more money. It is highly possible that the underdogs that you’re betting on won’t win as much as the champions but in the long run, you’re going to be benefiting in the wallet by consistently betting on the underdog.

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Besides watching a little James Bond and finding out that casino cruise ships save people’s lives, there’s some great savings and bonuses for those that keep their open – especially for online casino gamers.

The main way you’re going to get special treatment at online casinos is the same way you get special treatment in standard brick-and-mortar casinos – being loyal to the same casino websites over and over again. Most of the big dog online casino sites give out bonuses to its users. But before you just jump into the first “bonus” you see offered,you gotta get yourself acquainted with the details in the bonuses offered. In some of the less reputable casinos, they don’t offer a real bonus, but instead they just offer some deals that really just benefit the casino and not the users. Of course, most of the big names in the casino world take care of their users well, but it pays to pay attention.

Inside the world of casino bonuses and promotions

Today we’re going to be getting deep into the promotions offered by Sportsbook.com – looking at all the bonuses and promotions and seeing which really are the ones to take advantage of. Licensed since 1997 by the Government of Netherlands Antilles in the Curacao Island (and completely open to all United States players) they’ve been featured in tons of television programs and newspapers in the United States like CBS 60 Minutes, SNN, ESPN, Wall Street Journal, Barrons, Financial Times, and USA Today. They’ve got a nice interface, a nice amount of players at any one time and they’ve been twice labeled as the “Best United States Sports Book” by eGaming Review.

The reason why we’re taking a look at Sportsbook.com is because they have a crazy amount of bonuses and promotions going on at all times – you gotta keep yourself locked to the website so you know what promotions are going on. They offer casino, poker, horse racing (racebook), and sportsbook, so we’ll cover each section and the promotions offered.

Sportsbook.com Deposit Bonus

They have a standard instant 10% sign-up bonus to any initial deposit you make. This means whatever you deposit into Sportsbook.com, they hook you up with an extra 10% of whatever you deposited (e.g. you deposit $1000, they give you an extra $100 for you to play with).

If you’re going to playing poker, they hook you up with a 100% bonus up to $650 of your deposit. This means you deposit $650, they give you an extra $650 – total of $1300. To get the bonus, log-in to Sportsbook.com, make a real money purchase, click on the Rewards tab, then the Deposit Bonus tab in the poker lobby and then enter the code FIRST100 into the bonus code box. Check out how it looks in the image below:

You’ll also get a free seat into the Sportsbook.com weekly $500 “Welcome Freeroll” poker tournament – with a $500 prize pool. This freeroll is free to all brand new Sportsbook.com members that have made a real money purchase – running every Wednesday at 10:30 EST. To get into the freeroll poker tournament, hit the Private tab before the tournament start time, double-click on “Welcome Freeroll” and register for it.

Sportsbook.com Sportsbook Promotions

Here’s a limited time sportsbook promotion going on with an odd little twist. They call it Lucky 7 Seventh Heaven. If your BET ID ends with 7, 77, 777 or 7777 (this means if any of these are the last digit(s) of your BET ID) you get hooked up with more money if your bet wins.

For example, if you do a Straight, Parlay or Teaser bet of $25 or more that wins and ends in a 7, 77, 777, or 7777 you win the Lucky 7 promotion bonus. If your Bet ID ends in 7 you receive a 25% win bonus, if it ends in 77 you receive a 50% win bonus, if it ends in 777 you receive $100.00 cash, and if it ends in 7777 you receive $500.00 cash.

If you’re betting on baseball, they hook you up with their MLB Bad Beat Bonuses with one of the top ones being called Extra Inn-sults. If you bet the under on a Major League Baseball game and your bet loses because the game went into extra innings they give a 25% cash back bonus. Another one is the Complete Shutout bonus – if you bet the money line or run line and the baseball team you bet on got shutout by the opposing pitcher they’ll hook you up with a 25% cash back bonus. Another bonus is the Walk-off Loser – if you bet the money line and your team is ahead but ends up losing because of a walk-off home run, Sportsbook.com will hook you up with a 25% cash back bonus.

A nice one is the Fall Classic promotion. In this one, every $20+ bet on MLB will give one extra entry into this drawing. If you win, you get a $5000 prize pack which is two tickets to watch the Major League Baseball World Series along with airfare and hotel accommodations.

Another baseball promotion on Sportsbook.com is the $40k MLB Handicapping Challenge. In this one, when the baseball regular season is over, the casino player with the most points gets $6000 points. If you finish from 2nd to 5th overall you get $1100 cash. Even if you finish in the top 2000 of the overall leader-board gives you an automatic entry into the $10,000 MLB poker tournament that Sportsbook.com will be doing in the near future. The monthly prizes vary depending on where you place: 1st gets $500 Cash (+10% Reload Bonus on your next deposit), 2nd-10th gets $200 Cash (+10% Reload Bonus on your next deposit), 11th-20th gets $50 Cash (+10% Reload Bonus on your next deposit), 21st-50th gets you a 10% Reload Bonus on your next deposit, and 51st-onwards gets you a 5% Reload Bonus on your next deposit. You earn points on this promotion first on wagers of $20 or more with at least 10 qualifying MLB wagers in the month. Each month, the Sportsbook.com player with the most points accumulated wins. ML wagers get you 1 point, run line wagers get you 1 point, total wagers get you 1 point, 2-4 team parlays get you 3 points, 5-7 team parlays get you 6 points, 8-10 team parlays get you 12 points, and 11-12 team parlays get you 24 points.

Sportsbook.com Casino Promotions

24 blackjack winners get rewarded every 24 hours with various prizes, with the prize pot hitting $24,000. The games you can hit the bonus on are Blackjack 52, Blackjack, Blackjack Switch, Spanish Blackjack, and Blackjack 7s. So far, there’s been 244 winners on this one.

If you like slots, Sportsbook.com has the $24 free to play slots promotion offer you get with as well. This means that you get $24 free when you transfer at least $24 to play with some hot slots. Enter coupon code 24FORFREE at the Redeem Coupon tab in the Cashier to get hooked up with this promotion. (NOTE: Do not put this coupon code in the join form area if you’re a new customer, do this once you’re a member)

Sportsbook.com Racebook Horse Racing Promotions

The big one that Sportsbook.com offers for racebook fans is the 3% rebate program. Every day, whatever you bet on the previous day with horse wagers, they give you a 3% deposit on that right into your account. Whether you win or lose on the racebook, you’ll know you’re going to get something the next day.

Sportsbook.com Poker Promotions

There are TONS of poker bonuses going on at any time. One of the bigones is the $100,000 gold card giveaway. With a $100,000 prize pool and a minimum payday of $100 this is one to definitely get into. You win gold cards by playing in the real money poker ring games. The gold cards get chosen via a random number generator (RNG) when a certain rake has been collected (higher limits you play mean the faster that this amount gets reached). When the rake’s been collected, a gold card will be randomly selected and displayed to the players at the poker table at the end of the hand. If you match that gold card with one of your hole cards you get that gold card, even if you had folded your hand.

Another poker one is the Big Hands Win Big Bucks promotion. In this one, if you get 4 jacks or better in any of the Big Bucks cash game tables you get free entry into the Sportsbook.com $5000 private freeroll.

You’re also going to want to get acquainted with Frequent Player Points (FPP’s). The more you play, the more rake the casino is getting, so the more FPP points you’re going to be getting. The more FPP you have, the more gold chips you get. For every dollar dropped into rake (even fractional points), you’ll get 1 FPP – with a maximum of 3 FPP per hand. If you play in poker tournaments, you’ll get 7 FPP’s for every $1 in tournament entry fees.

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What we know about NFL arrests

We also know about Michael Vick (dog lover), Ricky Williams (herbal remedy king), and Pacman Jones (making it rain at the clubs). So you might be wondering about how to take advantage of these arrests to put down some money and maybe win some big money back in exchange by hooking up on the prop bet.

BetUS Sportsbook is taking advantage of this and their oddsmakers have released their NFL prop bet odds on what teams are going to have a player arrested next and which player will that be.

“The NFL is part of the fabric of the lives of fans in America and their interest in their teams and players goes far beyond the field,” said BetUS.com spokesman Reed Richards. “This is illustrated by the number of fans who come to us looking for analysis and predictive information regarding which star or team will be in hot water next.”

NFL Team to have next player arrested
Cincinnati Bengals 5/1
Atlanta Falcons 8/1
Miami Dolphins 10/1
Dallas Cowboys 15/1
Indianapolis Colts 15/1
Philadelphia Eagles 15/1
Detroit Lions 18/1
Denver Broncos 20/1
Kansas City Chiefs 20/1
Minnesota Vikings 20/1
Oakland Raiders 20/1
New York Giants 25/1
Washington Redskins 25/1
Buffalo Bills 25/1
New England Patriots 25/1
New York Jets 25/1
Arizona Cardinals 25/1
San Francisco 49ers 25/1
Seattle Seahawks 25/1
St Louis Rams 25/1
San Diego Chargers 25/1
Chicago Bears 25/1
Green Bay Packers 25/1
Baltimore Ravens 25/1
Cleveland Browns 25/1
Carolina Panthers 25/1
New Orleans Saints 25/1
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 25/1
Houston Texans 25/1
Jacksonville Jaguars 25/1
Tennessee Titans 25/1

Next NFL player arrested will be for
Drug possession 2/1
DUI 3/1
Assault 4/1
Firearm possession 4/1
Breaking and entering 10/1
Robbery 15/1
Dog fighting 20/1
Tax evasion 25/1

Will there be more arrests in the 2008-2009 NFL Regular Season or Offseason?
Regular Season 5/12
Offseason 19/10

Total Number of In-Season Arrests
Over 7.5 2/3
Under 7.5 11/10

Will an NFL Player be arrested multiple times before the end of 08-09 Regular Season?
Yes 5/8
No 1/1

Next professional sport to have an athlete arrested
NFL 2/3
NBA 2/1
MLB 5/1
NHL 8/1

Bet Now on NFL Arrests at BetUS!

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Back in August, I entered two football contests in Las Vegas. These things are pretty cheap for 17 weeks of take-home gambling, with some added instant perks as well as the chance of a big score.

The Great Giveaway at all the major Station Casinos is $25 per entry but you can get three entries for the price of two. That total $50 fee also gets you $25 in slot play, so it’s really just $25 for all 3 entries if you’re going to play there anyway. Each week they pay $10,000 to the person with the most winners and $5,000 to the person with the most losers, with $100,000 given away at the end of the season to the overall champion and other cash prizes to the biggest loser and the “fiddle in the middle”.

The Football Frenzy contest is also run by Station Casinos, but is only available at their properties that don’t have the word “Station” in their name, which includes both Fiesta locations and a bunch of smaller neighborhood casinos. It costs $15 for 3 entries and a t-shirt, and you can never grumble at a free t-shirt. This contest gives most of its money away each week to the top 50 winners, rather than having one massive grand prize. Losers and those who get it all about half right get nothing here.

Both contests use the same system that allows you to choose your teams for each week at a touchscreen terminal in the sports book. Fortunately for me, you can make your picks as far in advance as you want - unlike at some other casinos where you have to turn up once a week to hand in your selections.

However, for both contests, I just pressed the “random” button for each week in turn and decided to treat it like a lottery ticket. There wasn’t much point trying to actually make the right picks for a whole season of games back in August, especially when you have to compete against Las Vegas locals who are able to enter or change their picks each week once the season is in full swing.

I’d only override a computer-generated selection if it gave a stupid number for the tie-breaker, which is to guess the total points scored on Monday Night Football. Computer says 4 points? That could only happen if both teams scored exactly one safety each in four quarters, and then nobody managed to do anything in overtime for a 2-2 final score. I can’t say for sure that it’s never happened, but safeties are pretty rare and it’s been five years since the last tied game in the NFL. Declining to bet on a 4 point game total here doesn’t exactly make me a wiseguy.

It’s Football Frenzy where my numbers seem to have come in - this Sunday I had apparently picked 11 winners out of 13. It doesn’t sound spectacular, but nobody chose all 13 correctly this week and only five people were better with a 12-1 record. The system only shows eighteen of us with 11 wins, so with 50 weekly prizes I’m already in the money!

I don’t know yet how much it will be, it depends on the outcome of tonight’s game, but the very worst case is $50 in slot play in the bank for Christmas. Prizes 1-5 are obviously gone but if I can scrape 6th-8th I’ll have a massive $100 cash to collect from the Fiesta Henderson in December! 9th or 10th place makes it $50 cash instead of the slot play, which makes little difference to me at a casino with +EV video poker.

My randomly-generated-by-computer tie-breaker for tonight’s MNF game is 31. It’s a sensible number…. come on the 17-14 scoreline!

EDIT: 24-0. Officially I took 28th place in the Football Frenzy. The MNF result was still to be counted and I got it wrong, slipping to 11-3 for the week. Still, it’s $50 in slot play in the bank…

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And he just said something pretty damn controversial. He’s declared that he feels “it’s not a bad thing” to bet on the UFC.

The quote that rocks the sportsbook world

By stating this the way he did, he’s putting himself and his organization, Ultimate Fighting Championship, on a solitary ledge in the sports community. His take on sports gambling is a complete 180 degree shift from the stance of the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), and most other major sports organizations in the United States and around the world. It’s such a gutsy move and I’m very curious to see the reaction that major anti-gambling commissioners in sports league have to this (e.g. David Stern from the NBA).

“If people want to bet legally on the UFC, we think that it’s not a bad thing,” said Fertitta.

Hell yeah Fertitta and UFC! This is exactly what I like to hear! What’s wrong with throwing down some bets on UFC fights legally at places like U.S. Friendly BetUS or other sportsbooks? I’m glad to see someone stepping up and having a unique attitude on sports gambling. Granted, it’s coming from the UFC, which in the modern sports world, is seen as the rebel child that doesn’t quite fit in neatly and friendly with the rest of the sports world.

Mixed Martial Arts versus the Sports World

We know the kind of heat that the MMA world gets from other sporting organizations like boxing for example. You’ve heard the smack talk that goes on between boxers and UFC fighters. I was going to do a comparison of the two organizations so I was going to type out the names of some boxing organizations but there’s such a ridiculous amount right now I can’t keep track… Some of the boxing associations I know off the top of my head are The World Boxing Association (WBA), The World Boxing Council (WBC), The International Boxing Organization (IBO), The International Boxing Federation (IBF). A quick search online and I come up with The International Olympic Boxing Association (IOBA) which I can only conclude is for the Olympics. Damn, I’m smart. But seriously, is there a need for so many “organizations” and “associations” in boxing? This is just one of those things that’s bringing down boxing - how the hell can you have multiple heavyweight champions? And then they have to “unify the belts”? What is that? Boxing is so overcommercialized and mismanaged it’s crazy.

Gambling and UFC: A marriage made in sports heaven?

Back to the Ulitmate Fighting Championship and the pro-gambling stance. This stance in favor of gambling on UFC results in what I feel will be an ever further fractured relationship between MMA and other sporting associations.

We can agree that boxing has its history. But is the future of sports owned by the likes of the UFC, International Fight League (IFL), and MMA? A lot of the big sporting leagues other than the National Football League are dwindling in attendance and interest. Meanwhile MMA is getting more popular than ever. Imagine how it’ll be in 10 years? 20 years?

This separation between these sports and MMA is not necessarily a bad thing. Think about it, sports like boxing are getting behind the times and I’m sad to say that because I really like boxing. But damn, when’s the last time you’ve seen a good boxing match? Or the last time you really got behind a fighter because you really identified with them? Unless it’s Rocky Balboa it really hasn’t happened. Granted, I was real into Felix Trinidad and Arturo Gatti, just cause I loved the heart they had and their relentless style. Instead, I’ve been associating more with UFC and MMA fighters. Guys like Tito Ortiz, Chuck “Iceman” Lidell.. these guys get me glued to the television. These guys make me pick up a pay-per-view box and watch it with my buddies and our girls.So really, this gutsy move just endears me more to the UFC and MMA movement. It shows that they aren’t afraid of breaking away from the rest of the sporting pack. They aren’t afraid of taking a stance on a controversial issue that other organizations in the sporting world take a politically correct stance on. Let’s face it, it’s easy to be anti-gambling and anti-sportsbook betting in today’s culture. Look at the Absolute Poker controversy and the arrests of major casino executives. It’s easy to point the finger. But it’s all about responsibility. Responsible betting, done in a legal way, is nothing to be ashamed of and should be something we embrace to have fun and unwind and make some money while we’re at it. I love that the UFC stands behind this and I’m sure many will agree with me.

The benefits of the pro-gambling stance of the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization

It makes sportsbook gamblers more at ease about being open about their UFC betting. It builds attention to a relatively young sport to a section of society that really takes these matches seriously. It’s going to make a lot of long-time boxing bettors think twice about betting on boxing matches and consider moving to UFC gambling due to the openness and frankness of its ownership group. We all know boxing has been a huge gambling mecca for a long time - maybe this gutsy quote shifts the gambling balance a bit in favor of MMA.

It’s a great move all around for the UFC.

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29-28.

They fought 3 five-minute rounds.

So I guess you want to know who won UFC 78?

Alright, I’ll tell you.

Rashad Evans. Happy now?

Both of these guys are former champions of the UFC reality show series on television, “The Ultimate Fighter”. Rashad Evans, who hails from Lansing, Michigan and who was a top wrestler when he was in college at Michigan State University, won the second season of the show. Michael Bisping, who was actually a furniture upholsterer in England before getting into Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), who the third season of the show. Bisping is the first resident of Great Britain to be a headliner on UFC.

Rashad Evans, who’s UFC record stands at 16-0-1, was able to use his badass wrestling experience by bringing down Michael Bisping, who now holds a 15-1 record after the loss, with double leg maneuvers, controlling the 1st two rounds. Punches were pretty ineffective for both fighters. used his wrestling experience to his advantage, taking Bisping down several times with double leg maneuvers, totally controlling the first two rounds. Neither fighter was able to hurt the other with punches. It appeared as if both fighters were acting strategically instead of aggressively.

“I controlled the pace of the fight by being able to take him down,” said Evans. “I think that was the determining factor. There was a lot of bad blood between us and it did get personal.”

“The takedowns were the determining factor, no question,” said Bisping. “He did get some takedowns, but I got up each time. I’m probably going to get slammed for this fight, but I fought a tough fight. People said that I didn’t belong here, but I think I proved myself. It was a dream come true.”

The undercard

Thiago Silva, who hails from Brazil, resides in Coconut Beach Florida and is undefeated, continued his lossless ways (is lossless even a word? if it is, I’m trademarking it. lossless™.) by knocking out Houston Alexander who comes from Omaha in the first round. Weird, his name is Houston but he’s from Omaha. You’d figure they’d name him Nebrasko. Oma-ho?

In the welterweight division, Thiago Alves beat Chris Lytle in fight stoppage due to Lytle’s right eye bleeding like a stuck pig. Fight lasted until the second round.

“The blood wasn’t in my eye,” said Chris “Bloody Eye” Lytle. “I could still see. Let it go.”

With the lightweights, Frankie Edgar, from Jersey, got a unanimous decision over Spencer Fisher from Iowa. The fight basically consisted of Fisher on his back, Edgar on top and random punches from Edgar.

“This was a huge win for me,” said Frankie “I Love Jersey” Edgar. “Not bad for a Jersey shore kid, huh? I got on top of him and didn’t let up.”

In the middleweights, Ed Herman from Vancouver slammed Joe Doerksen of Winnipeg with a hard left hook 39 seconds into the third round to knock him out. This had a revenge factor because Doerksen had beaten Herman in their first meeting three years back.

The other fights

• Akihiro Gono defeated Tamdan McCrory
• Marcus Aurelio defeated Luke Caudillo
• Joe Lauzon defeatedJason Reinhardt
• Karo Parisyan defeated Ryo Chonan

Thanks to BetUS for the UFC 78 betting odds. Check them out for U.S. friendly sportsbook betting on UFC fighting, pro and college football, basketball, baseball, boxing, and tennis. And yes, you can actually bet on television shows like Dancing With The Stars and Survivor. And random celebrity bets like “Will O.J. Simpson fall asleep in court?” LOL. Odds on BetUS are +1000 on that if you’re curious.

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Tonight: Saturday November 17, 2007.

It’s going on at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey and it’s the first time the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has been in Jersey since UFC 53: Heavy Hitters which was in Atlantic City.

The main even at UFC 78 is going to be heavyment Rashad Evans (10-0-1), who won The Ultimate Fighter 2 television show competition going into a light heavyweight battle against Michael Bisping (14-0), who won The Ultimate Fighter 3. Ryo Chonan and Akihiro Gono, both guys who defected from PRIDE mixed martial arts (MMA) are making their UFC debuts in the welterweight division.

Coming back to the main event, Rashad Evans trains out of Jackson’s Submission Fighting with Keith Jardine while Michael Bisping trains out of the Wolfslair Academy in England. This is going to be the first time we’ll be seeing two winners of The Ultimate Fighter tv program fighting in the UFC octagon.

Moneyline in parentheses. Odds courtesy of United States friendly casino and sportsbook Betus.

• Rashad Evans (-320) vs. Michael Bisping (240)
• Houston Alexander (-170) vs. Thiago Silva (140)
• Karo Parisyan (-350) vs. Ryo Chonan (250)
• Joe Doerksen (120) vs. Ed Herman (-150)
• Spencer Fisher (130) vs. Frankie Edgar (-160)
• Thiago Alves (-200) vs. Chris Lytle (160)
• Joe Lauzon (-400) vs. Jason Reinhardt (280)
• Marcus Aurelio (-500) vs. Luke Caudillo (350)
• Akihiro Gono (-190) vs. Tamdan McCrory (150)

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