The first thing most sports fans are doing now when they wake up in the morning, after pouring the much-needed cup of coffee, is tuning in to sports news to see what’s going on with the NBA, NHL and the rest of the gang. Between now and September, all the major leagues in the U.S. are expected to get underway, either finishing out their seasons or, as in the case of the NFL, get things going. Things are changing on a daily basis and there is still no guarantee that the coronavirus won’t force schedules to change, but, fortunately, there are plenty of other sports to keep fans occupied. This past weekend, Bodog saw a lot of action, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 251 ticket proved to be especially hot.
In terms of wager percentages on individual leagues, UFC 251 accounted for 38.27% of all bets seen on Bodog this past weekend. Kamaru Usman took on Jorge Masvidal in the Welterweight main event fight, completely dominating as he has done in almost all of his matches. He won by decision at the end of Round 5 to further his record to 17-1-0. Masvidal was forced to concede defeat and now has a 35-14-0 record.
Sharing the spotlight in main event round were Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway in a Featherweight bout. Volkanovski improved to 22-1 after winning by decision after the two went at it for all five rounds. In the Bantamweight fight on the ticket, Petr Yan scored a victory through a TKO when the referee had to step in and call off the match after a little more than three minutes into Round 5.
The response to UFC 251 was enough to keep soccer from controlling the Bodog boards. Between MLS, the Premier League, La Liga in Spain and Serie A in Italy, they usually make up the majority of wagers; however, this past weekend, soccer accounted for 31.59%. MLS was the overall winner, with 9.86% of the action. NFL 2020 Sims ranked up there once again, as well, taking 8.94% of the wagers. In golf, the Workday Charity Open, which saw Collin Morikawa take his second PGA Tour title, captured 7.96% of the bets.
As far as which individual events ran the show, the UFC fight between Usman and Masvidal captured 29.15% of the action. Usman had been the -240 favorite to win, and he didn’t disappoint. 16.16% of the wagers on Bodog went to the Workday competition, followed by 12.15% for the Volkanovski/Holloway fight. Volkanovski had been favored to win at -213 and, out of the top ten sports events, six went to UFC/MMA matches. Out of those, only the women’s Strawweight bout between Jessica Andrade (20-8-0) and Rose Namajunas (10-4-0) saw the underdog score a victory when Andrade was awarded the match – Namajunas had been favored at -240 and Andrade was given pre-match odds of +190.
