How to Bet on Boxing: The Smart Way

Before I start going over the different betting options you’ll find in popular sportsbook, we need to understand how to read boxing odds. If you don’t really understand how box betting odds work, or what all of those numbers mean, I highly recommend that you take a moment to read the piece I just linked.

If you’re in a hurry, that’s cool, here’s a crash course on betting odds:

Depending on the sportsbook, you’ll find any of these boxing odds:

American Odds

These are your typical odds with positive and negative numbers (like -150, +200, +300, etc.). Positive odds tell you how much you’ll win if you bet $100, while negative odds say how much you’ll have to bet to win $100.

• Example: +300 means your $100 bet will net you $300.
• Another Example: -120 means you need to bet $120 to win $100.

Decimal Odds

Mostly used in European sportsbook, and they tell you how much money you’ll get for every 1$ you wager. The higher the number, the better the payout.

• For Instance: 3.00 odds mean a $1 bet will return $3 (including the initial stake).

Fractional Odds

Common in UK sportsbook, and they look like this: 2/1, 3/1, 5/2, etc. They tell you how much profit you’ll get for each dollar that you put on a bet.

• For Example: 6/2 odds mean a $2 bet will yield a $6 profit.

Boxing offers a lot of betting options, and if you’ve bet on other sports, you’ll probably recognize a few of these. If you’re new to this whole thing, don’t worry, I’ll go over each option using real-life examples and give you actionable tips you can use too!

Moneyline Bets

Moneyline bets are the simplest of bets: you predict which fighter will win the match. The odds show you how much you can win depending on which fighter you picked. Also, fun fact, it’s pretty much the only bet a boxer that wants to bet on himself can make.

Let’s use an example: the Usyk vs Tyson Fury fight that we saw in May earlier this year. The odds back then were as follows:

Reading the Table:

For Fury, the odds are -120. This means he was the favorite, and if you bet $120 on him (and he actually won) you’d get $100 in profit. So, in total, you’d get back $220—your original $120 plus the $100 profit.

Now, Usyk is at +100, which means he’s the underdog. If you bet $100 on Usyk and he won, you’d get $100 profit, making your total return $200—your $100 bet plus the $100 profit.

Some gamblers like to look at preview videos from either fighter’s camp to see who’s taking it more seriously or being more tactical in their approach.

If one of the fighter’s team is actively researching how to deal with their opponent, while the other fighter prepares for the fight as they would for any other, then there’s already a difference in commitment and preparation you need to consider. When fights are close, this can often make all the difference.

Over/under bets in boxing aren’t about who wins the fight, instead you’re predicting how long the fight will be. The sportsbooks will set “lines” which is a “cutoff” point of where the fight will end and all you have to do is choose whether it’ll end before or after a specific line (this could vary from sportsbook to sportsbook).

Let’s face it: some fights don’t have close odds like Usyk vs Fury had, some are open-and-shut cases and the odds support it, for instance the Terence Crawford vs Amir Khan fight a few years back.

Depending on the sportsbook, you’d look at -2000 on Crawford and +1000 on Khan, and betting on Khan wasn’t really an attractive option at all. However, there were a couple of bets that still looked good:

A KO win by Crawford was -300, which isn’t nearly as unbalanced, but there was also an Over/Under bet that was set at 7.5 rounds at only -120. If you start looking at Khan’s past losses, you’ll notice the following:

• Stopped at the first round by Prescott
• TKO’d by Swift at the 4th round
• Knocked out by Canelo at the 6th round

These odds are way better, and the recent history proves that Khan, when he loses, loses early on. These are odds I’d take, instead of going for scraps on a moneyline bet.

You’ll often find that, even during unbalanced matches, you’ll find these decent bets that you can also take to diversify your winnings.

Betting on boxing, like betting on most sports, will (generally) offer two options: safer, smaller returns that could generate some nice revenue if you got a serious bankroll behind you. Let’s keep using the Usyk vs. Fury fight to see how this works, specifically how the over/under bet works.

The sportsbook will set “lines” which is a “cutoff” point of where the fight will end, and if we keep using our previous example, you’ll see that this line was set at 10.5.

So, we’ve got two options: we either bet the fight goes over 10.5 rounds or under. Here’s what the odds looked like for this bet:

If you bet *over 10.5 rounds*, you’re saying the fight will last longer than 10.5 rounds (so it needs to go at least 11 rounds). The odds for this are -290. This means you’d need to bet $290 to win $100. This is a safer bet, but you’d have to bet serious money if you want good returns.

If you bet *under 10.5 rounds*, you’re saying the fight will end before the halfway point of the 11th round. The odds here are +200, meaning if you bet $100 and win, you’d get $200 profit. If you’re new to sports betting, be prepared to face this scenario every single day of your gambling life: riskier bets will offer better payouts.

In this example, Usyk won by split decision, meaning the fight went the distance, way over 10.5 rounds. If you bet on the over, you’d win, but if you went with the under, you’d lose your bet.

• If you bet $2900 on the fight lasting longer than 10.5 rounds, you’d made $1000 from that bet alone. If you further diversified and bet on a victory by decision, you’d gotten an additional payout.

Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for a matchup where it makes sense to bet on the underdog. Usyk was the underdog coming into this fight, and he won, so it can definitely happen. Usyk is one tough guy, so if anyone could pull an upset it was him, an over/under bet plus a moneyline bet on him winning could’ve earned you some decent cash too.

Prop bets in boxing focus on predicting specific events within a fight, such as:

• Round Betting*: Betting on the exact round in which a fighter will win.
• Method of Victory*: Betting on whether the fight will end by knockout, submission, or decision.

Prop bets can get wild, and sportsbook offer all sorts of options you can wager some money in. These bets appeal to more veteran gamblers, since casuals tend to stick with moneyline, or at most, over/under bets. Which makes sense, these are harder to predict, but they can be hidden gems for smart gamblers that do their research, which leads me into my next tip.

For the Fury vs Usyk fight earlier this year, prop bets looked like this:

A parlay takes multiple individual bets and puts them into one single combo (each bet is called a “leg”). The twist here is that all your picks have to win, but if they do, you’ll get a considerably bigger payout than if you’d bet on each outcome separately.

Let’s see how you can make money with parlays in boxing with an example. Let’s keep using the Usyk vs. Fury fight to see how we’d done it.

If you parlay these bets:

1. Usyk to win by decision or technical decision at +185.
2. Over 10.5 rounds at -290.
3. Fight goes the distance at -220.

If you get all three of your legs right, then you win the parlay and you get an incredible payout. Obviously, this varies depending on how the odds stack up, and the odds can change from sportsbook to sportsbook, but parlays are popular precisely because of their payouts.

Keep in mind that if even one of those bets loses, you get nothing. Had Usyk won by knockout instead of decision, you’d lost (even if the knockout happened at the last round, which would’ve fulfilled the over/under portion of the parlay).

• Some gamblers like to parlay bets that fall on the safer side to get additional money from their relatively risk-adverse choices. Personally, I think parlays can be great, so long as you actually look at fighter’s statistic, recent history and style matchups since you can combine some interesting prop and moneyline bets into something great.

We’ve briefly discussed the importance of due diligence and looking at individual fighter stats, media released by both fighters prior to the fight and preparation. We’ve also considered looking at historical data and how it pertains to specific bets (past stoppage history for over/under bets, etc).

But let’s look at some additional factors you should also consider if you want to make the best bets possible.

If you’re new to betting on boxing, start with moneyline bets and consider sticking to these. You can then try over/under bets as a stepping stone since those can be hidden gems.

I purposely avoided talking about bets such as Round Betting and Knockout victories because these are very difficult to nail. Fighters that typically get Knockouts might have an off day, and before you know it, you’re in the red.

As always, please use your brain before putting any money into bets. I know that I sound like a broken record, but it’s because this is, by far, the best advice anyone can give you on sports betting in general. Keep an eye on market movements, check in with your favorite bettors and analysts (you should have a personal record on their prediction’s success rates by now) and closely follow what’s happening. Significant shifts mean something big happened, and you’d do well to readjust if needed.

Alright, pay attention to this tip because this might be the difference between wealth and ruin. Please remember that boxing matches don’t always turn out the way they should. Obvious, I know, but sometimes you’ll feel an urge to bet your house on a bet (if you could) because you’re 100% sure that the match will end in a particular way.

Think twice. Respect the fact that, sometimes a judge’s card will make zero sense to you, but it’ll still cause you to lose a bet. Sometimes a fighter gets a lucky shot and, before you know it, the champion is snoozing on the canvas and you’re in the red.

Establish a Bankroll and manage it with an iron fist. You need to be disciplined about gambling and have strict rules when it comes to using your money and resources. Be very analytical in your bets, but accept that chaos and randomness is a real thing and never bet what you can’t afford to lose.

What are the types of bets in boxing?

Common boxing bets include Moneyline (picking the fight winner), Over/Under (predicting the fight duration in rounds), and Prop Bets (specific outcomes, like knockout or decision).

How does the Moneyline work in boxing?

In boxing Moneyline betting, each fighter is assigned odds. Positive odds indicate the underdog, and negative odds show the favorite. Betting on the favorite pays less than betting on the underdog.

Can you bet on boxing live?

Yes, many sportsbooks offer live betting during boxing matches, allowing you to wager as the fight unfolds with odds adjusting in real-time.

What does Over/Under mean in boxing betting?

The Over/Under bet in boxing is about predicting how long a fight will last. Bettors wager on whether the fight will go over or under a specific round.

What are prop bets in boxing?

Prop bets are side bets on specific outcomes, like the method of victory (knockout, TKO, or decision), the exact round the fight will end, or if the fight will go the distance.