UFC Fight Night Gambling Preview
While the rest of the sports world is on pause due to the coronavirus, the Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to action for their second event in less than a week. The main card for UFC Fight Night on May 13th features two light heavyweight title contenders with Glover Teixiera and Anthony Smith. Smith is the favorite with Money-line of -175 while Teixeira has plus odds of +140. Also on the card includes a bout between Hunter Azure and Brian Kelleher. Azure is the favorite at -190 with Kelleher getting odds of +160. According to the oddsmakers the most lopsided fight is between Sijara Eubanks and Sarah Moras. Eubanks is the heavy favorite at -400 and Moras is at plus odds of +310.MMA and Boxing gambling analyst Casey Olson joined SI Gambling Insider Frank Taddeo to discuss the event and preview which fighters to wager on.
Read the Full Transcript Below:
Bill Enright: MMA action is back with UFC Fight Night Live on ESPN Plus starting at 9:00 for May 13th. Let's break it down from who you want on your DFS lineup. For that, I go to Frank Taddeo Casey Olson and our gambling and MMA. analysts here at Sports Illustrated. Frank, I'll start with you. UFC 249 brought some action back to the books for the first time in quite some time. But from what I understand, the DFS lineups really didn't take often for the UFC is first event in a while.
Gary A. Vasquez/USA Today Sports
Frankie Taddeo: Yeah, it really did. According to DraftKings that they saw a record handle betting handle, but they didn't see record handle for being the only fantasy option out there. So they are hoping that maybe tonight and maybe Saturday, maybe a lot of fantasy players looked at UFC 249 as the first opportunity and just sat on the sidelines and maybe they'll jump back in tonight. But I'll be honest, this tremendous opportunity for everyone right now, if you want to jump in and take a chance. You're looking at, you know, decent sized pay outs with limited pools so you won't be seeing the normal sized pools that you would normally have. There's not gonna be a lot of sharks out there. So if you're looking for an opportunity to make some money, DFS is the way to go in fantasy. Besides the betting handle. But right now, I really think that there's a solid opportunity for fantasy players out there, especially on Wednesdays card as well as on Saturdays once again.
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Bill Enright: All right, so let's talk about making some money in the men to help us do that. Is Casey Olson, Casey a turtle? Over to you. What do we want in our DFS lineups?
Casey Olsen: Yeah, I gotta say, they're trying to bate us in there, though, Frankie. On June 6, they already have a millionaire maker out there up for grabs with MMA. So but before we get there this week, tonight we have over a million on the line across the board up for grabs. But you got to look at Anthony Smith in the main event. You know, you got five rounds to work and he's actually the only fighter on the entire card with as a favorite to finish the fight inside the distance. Couple underdogs you might want to look at as Alexander Hernandez, very busy guy in there in the cage. And Ben Rothwell, he's gonna be facing over and say, Pruex, who's actually moving up from light heavyweight to heavyweight. This Wednesday night. So take a look at those guys.
Bill Enright: All right. You can follow all of Casey's analysis for UFC fight night by checking out his articles on SI.com/fantasy.
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