While the Ultimate Fighting Championship has started to increase attention from a younger audience, the idea of gambling on the fights has not gotten through to the majority of the viewers. Reason being, not many odds makers understand how the UFC fighters are lined up. Predominantly as of now, only hard core UFC fans who regularly watch the fights actually bet on the tournaments.

During UFC 100 card, which was at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, the top names were Brock Lesnar, Frank Mir, and Georges St. Pierre. These names are not widely known to the public unless you are a regular viewer. It might be because it is not even a main sport. In fact the Nevada Gaming Control Board classifies Mixed Martial Arts as “Other Sports”.

“There’s just not enough events to properly give UFC a fair rating as far as the take at the wickets goes. It’s definitely the fastest-growing betting sport that we have now, overtaking NASCAR. Each and every UFC event seems to get more and more action,” said the Las Vegas Hilton sports book director, Jay Kornegay.

When commenting on the total bets placed on the last UFC card, Kornegay stated that it “would equal a good NFL game. It would surpass a Falcons-Browns game and equal a Giants-Bears game. It’s tough to say sometimes since you might get some large wagers on any given fight or very few large wagers.”

Las Vegas Sports Consultants has only eight odds makers that view the UFC events. One of the odds makers Sean Van Patten says, “I know enough about some of the bigger fighters. I don’t follow it as much as some of these mixed martial arts junkies do. In order to get a good feel for it, you have to watch all the fights. That makes it difficult. When we first started doing it, we were only putting up the main event. Now, every two or three weeks, we’re putting up five or six of the fights because the books are asking for more.”