MMA Wagering A Niche Market, but Growing
July 9, 2009
The Las Vegas Review Journal detailed the size of the MMA wagering market and some of the trend in that segment of the betting sector. MMA/UFC betting is growing, but the paucity of eents ends to skew the data according to the LVRJ:
Van Patten estimates UFC/MMA accounts for “maybe 1 percent” of the state’s sports annual wagering handle. “But I do know that it has definitely gained a lot of interest just in the last year,” he said.
Las Vegas Hilton sports book director Jay Kornegay called the 1 percent estimate mostly accurate but deceiving.”It’s got to be less than 1 percent of our handle,” Kornegay said. “But that’s an unfair assessment. It’s not fair to rate it that way. There’s just not enough events to properly give UFC a fair rating.
“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.” Kornegay said the total bet on this weekend’s UFC card “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.”
It should be interesting to follow the growth of wagering on MMA as a metric to the mainstream acceptance. Americans tend to love sports they can place a wager on, so seeing gains in this area will be unique indicator to what degree the betting publice, and the larger public, embraces MMA.
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