Boxing Betting Guide: How to Bet on Boxing

Many online sportsbooks feature boxing betting. Therefore, you'll have no shortage of options to choose from when wagering on professional boxing. If you need any help finding a quality sportsbook, though, you can start with the following best US betting sites.

Unlike team sports such as baseball, basketball, or football, boxing doesn't have a set season. Nevertheless, it does feature something of an unofficial season.

Many fights take place between April and September. While bouts still happen outside of these months, the majority occur between spring and the early fall.

The number of fights that each pro boxer takes varies from case to case. Newer pros might have a boxing match every 1-2 months. After all, they typically only fight between four and six rounds.

More-experienced fighters have bouts lasting between eight and 12 rounds and only fight 2-3 times per year. These same athletes are generally in the biggest boxing matches in terms of fanfare and betting action.

Professional boxing features 18 weight classes. Eight of these are known as “glamour divisions” because they're part of the sport's “Original Eight” classes.

You can see all 18 weight classes along with the glamour divisions in bold:

• Heavyweight: 200+ lbs
• Bridgerweight: 200–224 lbs
• Cruiserweight: 175–200 lbs
• Light heavyweight: 168–175 lbs
• Super middleweight: 160–168 lbs
• Middleweight: 154–160 lbs
• Light middleweight: 147–154 lbs
• Welterweight : 140–147 lbs
• Light welterweight: 135–140 lbs
• Lightweight: 130–135 lbs
• Super featherweight: 126–130 lbs
• Featherweight: 122–126 lbs
• Super bantamweight: 118–122 lbs
• Bantamweight: 115–118 lbs
• Super flyweight: 112–115 lbs
• Flyweight: 108–112 lbs
• Light flyweight: 105–108 lbs
• Strawweight: 105 lbs

The highest-profile boxing fights happen in the “glamour divisions”. These divisions draw the vast majority of boxing bets.

Boxing odds come in three main forms, including American, decimal, and fractional. Given that this guide is focused on North American bettors, we'll stick with American odds for examples.

These odds indicate the favorite with a minus (-) sign and the underdog with a plus (+) sign. They use $100 as a standard for how much you can win on the favorite or underdog.

Here's an example of how American odds work:

• Tyson Fury -195
• Anthony Joshua +160

In this instance, you'd need to bet $195 to win $100 (profit) on Fury. Meanwhile, you'd wager $100 to win $160 (profit) on Joshua.

Boxing betting doesn't work much differently than team sports regarding the odds. The wager shown in the example is common throughout sports gambling. As explained in the next section, though, sportsbooks modify certain bet types to fit the parameters of boxing.

Most boxing bets take place online these days. After registering and depositing, you can browse an internet sportsbook's list of available boxing betting lines.

From here, you choose one or more wagers to put on a betting slip. Once you've confirmed the slip, your wager(s) will be live and can't be changed later.

That said, one of the simplest boxing betting tips is to double-check your slip before omitting it. This practice ensures that you'll only place desired boxing bets rather than accidental ones.

You can enjoy a variety of boxing bets at land-based and online sportsbooks like the NJ sportsbooks. Everything from moneylines to live wagers are available.

If you're an experienced sports gambler, then you may already be familiar with some of these bet types. Moneylines and live bets are especially common throughout the industry.

Some wagers are unique to boxing (and the UFC), however, such as round totals and method of victory (MOV). Therefore, you may be less familiar with these bet types. If so, you'll find the following information on different boxing bets to be helpful.

Boxing Moneyline Betting

Most boxing matches end in a victory for one of the fighters. Moneyline betting involves selecting which of the fighters will win the bout.

Sportsbooks use moneyline odds to encourage gamblers to wager on both sides of betting lines. With the favorite, you'll be risking more money relative to the potential winnings. In contrast, underdogs pay more relative to the stake.

Here's how moneyline betting works:

• Demetrius Andrade -155 (risking $155 to win $100)
• Ryota Murata +130 (risking $100 to win $125)

Andrade is slightly favored in this boxing match—hence how the potential winnings are lower than the stake. Meanwhile, you stand to win more on the underdog Murata with a smaller wager.

Moneyline bets are the most popular in boxing. You'll find these wagers available at literally every boxing betting site.

Boxing Round Totals

Normally, totals betting involves the combined score of two teams. Two basketball teams, for example, might have a total of 201.5. You'd wager on whether the combined score will be over or under this line.

With boxing, however, totals betting works differently. It provides an over/under on how many rounds a fight will last.

Here's an example:

• Mairis Briedis vs. Lawrence Okolie (scheduled for 12 rounds)
• Over 9.5 rounds -135
• Under 9.5 rounds +110

If you take the over here, you'll be banking on the match lasting 10 rounds or more. With the under, you'll be hoping that the bout ends in nine or fewer rounds.

Assuming you like employing boxing betting strategy, then you can research history on the two fighters. You want to specifically look at the average distance that each fighter's matches go—especially the most-recent bouts.

Method of Victory

Boxing matches can end in a variety of ways. Possible outcomes include knockout (KO), technical knockout (TKO), a unanimous decision, split decision, draw or a fighter retiring.

Some boxing betting sites offer wagers on the method of victory. They don't, however, list all of the potential outcomes as bet options. Instead, they focus on outcomes like KO/TKO and unanimous/split decisions.

Here's an example on how a MOV wager looks:

• Canelo Alvarez by KO/TKO -250
• Caleb Plant by KO/TKO +200
• Canelo Alvarez by split/unanimous decision -275
• Caleb Plant by split/unanimous decision +220
• Draw +1900

Draws rarely happen in boxing fights and carry long MOV odds. A KO/TKO or decision are the likelier outcomes and offer more-realistic odds.

Just like with round totals, you can employ plenty of boxing betting strategies on MOV wagers. One good approach involves studying each fighter's number of knockouts and decisions recently. You can make a more-informed wager by focusing on the two fighters' last 5-7 matches.

Floyd Mayweather, for example, took many fights to the distance during his career. He was usually a good bet to win by decision.

Boxing Round Betting

Round betting sounds similar to round totals. However, it differs slightly by revolving around the exact round that a fight will end.

Boxing betting sites have multiple ways that they can present these wagers. The simplest method involves asking you to pick the fighter who'll win in a certain round.

A more-complicated method requires you to choose the fighter and MOV in a specific round. For instance, you might have to guess if a fighter will win by KO or opponent disqualification.

The following example shows the simpler route:

• Brian Castano in round one +1600
• Jermell Charlo in round one +1700
• Brian Castano in round two +1800
• Jermell Charlo in round two +1900
• Brian Castano in round three +1900
• Jermell Charlo in round three +2000
• Brian Castano in round four +2200
• Jermell Charlo in round four +2300
• Brian Castano in round five +2500
• Jermell Charlo in round five +2750
• Brian Castano in round six +3000
• Jermell Charlo in round six +3300
• Brian Castano in round seven +2900
• Jermell Charlo in round seven +3150
• Brian Castano in round eight +3050
• Jermell Charlo in round eight +3200

Round wagers involve even more boxing betting strategy than round totals and MOV bets. You can pour considerable time into researching the rounds where fighters normally win.

Boxing Futures Betting

Futures revolve around an event that'll happen in the distant future. For example, you might wager on which baseball team will win the World Series months in advance.

Futures aren't a big part of boxing betting. However, you might consider any bet placed shortly after a fight is announced to be a future. Major fights are announced several months in advance.

Here's an example of a futures wager:

• Mike Tyson -160
• Lennox Lewis +120
• Announced in September 2021
• Match happens in December 2021

If you pick one fighter immediately after the press conference, then you're wagering on a distant event. Much can happen in between the announcement and fight night. One of the fighters could get injured during training and, thus, foil early bettors.

The upside to placing a futures bet on boxing, though, is that you benefit from favorable early odds. In the above example, Lewis might show that he's in better form than everybody expects. Early Lennox backers would then gain more value from their wagers.

Numerous boxing sportsbooks exist throughout the industry. You might not even know where to begin when looking for the best online sportsbooks for boxing betting.

However, you can make this matter easier by focusing on the following aspects. Odds, mobile gambling, bonuses, and safety/security are all crucial when seeking the best boxing betting sites.

Competitive Boxing Odds

Handicapping and other boxing betting strategies can only take you so far. Eventually, you also need to find fair odds (a.k.a. prices) that provide stronger long-term chances of winning.

Some online sportsbooks have a reputation for offering more-favorable odds than the competition. They don't take as much juice (a.k.a. vigorish) from the losing side of a wager. This lower juice means that the operator is also collecting a smaller cut of the overall action (a.k.a. “overround”).

Here's an example to illustrate this point:

WynnBet Sportsbook line:

• Mauricio Lara -170
• Kid Galahad +145
• Overround = 3.79%

DraftKings sportsbook line:

• Mauricio Lara -175
• Kid Galahad +140
• Overround = 5.32%

WynnBET is offering the better price for this particular wager. Assuming you find a sportsbook that consistently provides more-favorable odds, then you stand to win additional money over time. Check our honest WynnBet Sportsbook review to know more.

Mobile Betting on Boxing

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You no longer have to travel to Las Vegas or another physical location to bet on boxing. Instead, many states now offer legal-and-regulated mobile wagering.

Most bookmakers realize that they need quality mobile service to remain competitive. Nevertheless, you can't take anything for granted.

You want to ensure that a boxing gambling site has a quality mobile app or browser-based wagering. Any boxing betting app should run smoothly and be easy to navigate.

Browser-based betting refers to when you make wagers directly through a mobile sportsbook's website rather than an app. It should also offer a clean interface and run without any hiccups. Caesars Sportsbook, for example, consistently draws praise for its high-quality app.

Too many quality boxing mobile sportsbooks are available. You don't have to settle for anything less than the best when betting on boxing.

Free Bets or Boxing Bonuses

You don't need to rely on winnings alone with boxing betting. Instead, you can also take advantage of bonuses and other promotions.

Common boxing betting bonuses include:

• Free bet - A free wager that lets you keep any potential profits, minus the stake. If you win a $25 free bet at -110 odds, then you'll receive a $22.73 profit.
• Bonus bet - Assuming you win a bonus wager, you'll collect the profits and move on. In the event of a loss, you get a chance to earn back the losses by meeting terms and conditions.
• Deposit bonus - The sportsbook matches your deposit by a certain percentage. For example, it might offer a 50% match on your first deposit up to $200.
• No-deposit bonus - A bookmaker offers you a bonus just for signing up. It may, for instance, give you a $25 bonus bet after you've completed registration.

Boxing bonuses are no doubt enticing. However, you don't want to lose sight of the terms and conditions (T&C's) involved.

Rollover is one of the most important terms. It refers to the multiple times that you must wager before cashing out bonus winnings. If your bonus is worth $50 and rollover is 6x, for example, then you'll have to wager $300.

Of course, rollover is just one part of earning boxing bonus funds. You should carefully review what other terms are involved as well.

Safety and Security

Any decent online sportsbook will offer a secure website. After all, bookmakers need to ensure that hackers can't steal data from their customers.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology is the ideal method of website protection. It encrypts information exchanged between bettors and online sportsbooks.

Web browsers provide an indication on which sites are secure. Safari, for example, places a lock symbol next to a website's URL to show that it's safe.

If you're like most boxing bettors, you don't have time to thoroughly evaluate each potential betting site. Therefore, you may experience difficulty in finding the absolute-best online sportsbooks for boxing betting on your own.

However, you can take a shortcut by checking out our reviews at Gambling.com (GDC). The GDC staff thoroughly evaluates online bookmakers by focusing on the criteria discussed above.

To recap, our main focuses include:

• Competitive odds
• Mobile betting experience
• Bonuses
• Security
• Licensing where relevant

We also consider other important factors, such as banking options, customer support, markets and betting variety. Sportsbooks that excel in most/all of these categories earn the highest rankings on our list.

You're welcome to do your own research on internet sportsbooks too. Again, though, you can rely on GDC when looking for a shortcut to the top boxing betting sites.