Online Boxing Betting

What Is Boxing?

As mentioned, boxing is a fighting game that is played between two people in what’s called a boxing ring. Players punch each other with the goal of knocking their opponent out and are required to wear protective equipment when fighting, including gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards too.

The earliest evidence of boxing rules dates back to Ancient Greece, where games were held outdoors and had no rounds. They played out until one opponent acknowledged defeat or was unable to continue the fight.

Boxing and betting on boxing were popular during the late 1690s in London, where fighters performed for money at the Royal Theatre of London and viewers wagered on the outcome of each fight. Back then, fighters played without globes and like in Ancient Greece, the game would play until one fighter could no longer continue.

Although it was made illegal, boxing proved to be popular, and fighter James Figg was named champion of England, an accolade he held for 15 years. Jack Broughton, one of Figg’s pupils, is credited with devising boxing’s first set of rules in 1743. These rules remained in place until 1838, when they were replaced by more detailed rules by the London Prize Ring. These new rules became popular all over England and the United States, but they were revised again in 1867 by John Graham Chambers, requiring the game to emphasise skill and boxing technique. These rules are widely used today in modern boxing, and you can read all about them below.

Boxing: Everything You Need To Know

Boxing is a dangerous sport, much more than other sports, which is why the rules of boxing are incredibly complicated and strict. All games take place in a boxing ring featuring four posts that are around five foot in height. Matches consist of up to 12 three-minute rounds, with players getting a minute-long break between rounds where they receive advice and medical attention from staff if needed.

A referee shares the ring with players, controlling the match and player conduct. They’re also responsible for counting players out of the match and ruling fouls. There are also three judges present around the ring that score points to each player based on their performance, and the player with the highest score at the end of the match is crowned as the winner, although draws are possible. What’s more, players can be crowned by knocking their opponent out, which is determined by the match’s referee.

There are several rules regarding player combat, restricting how participants act within the ring. They include:

• Participants must not hit below the belt, trip, hold, kick, bite, push, spit or headbutt opponents
• Participants must not hit opponents with their head, elbows or forearms
• Participants must not hit with an open glove, wrist or with their backhand, only with closed fist punches
• Participants must not hit opponents in their back, neck, kidneys or in the back of their head
• Participants must not hold or use the ring’s ropes for leverage
• Participants must not hit their opponent when they are knocked down

Participants that break the rules commit fouls and receive either warnings, point reductions or disqualifications depending on the severity of the foul and the referee. There are numerous other rules which control a match of boxing, including the weight and skill of participants within a single match, but what we’ve explained above is the general gist of boxing rules and enough to help you place boxing wagers.

Boxing Bodies, Belts, And Weight Classes

Rather than running boxing tournaments, there are belts in boxing which players compete for. There are four major boxing bodies that award boxing belts, and they include the World Boxing Association (WBA), the World Boxing Organisation (WBO), the World Boxing Council (WBC), and the International Boxing Federation (IBF). Every boxing body awards belts based on each weight class, meaning there are four world championships for all 17 weight classes, which include:

• Heavyweight: 200 pounds+
• Cruiserweight: 200 pounds
• Light Heavyweight: 175 pounds
• Super Middleweight: 168 pounds
• Middleweight: 160 pounds
• Super Welterweight: 154 pounds
• Welterweight: 147 pounds
• Super Lightweight: 140 pounds
• Lightweight: 135 pounds
• Super Featherweight: 130 pounds
• Featherweight: 126 pounds
• Super Bantamweight: 122 pounds
• Bantamweight: 118 pounds
• Super Flyweight: 115 pounds
• Flyweight: 112 pounds
• Light Flyweight: 108 pounds
• Minimumweight: 105 pounds

Before a fight, there are weigh-ins where boxers are weighed to ensure one fighter doesn’t have an unfair advantage over another. Boxers cannot go over or under their weight class, but they can put weight on within their class ahead of their fight to match or surpass their opponent’s.

Fighters can win any of the four world belt titles for their specific weight class. A boxer with a world belt is known as a champion, a boxer with more than one belt title is known as a unified champion, and a boxer that holds all four world belt titles for their weight class is known as an undisputed champion.

Matches wherein boxers from a single weight class are fighting for a world belt title are called unification fights. There are also mandatory challengers in boxing, which are fighters a champion must take on or be forced to surrender their belt title.

Famous Boxers

Since boxing has been around for decades, there are dozens of famous players. Below, you’ll find a list of some of the most famous boxers that are still playing the sport, giving you a good idea of which players may be worth betting on. Take a look at them below:

• Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez with 56 wins, 38 knockouts
• Vasyl Lomachenko with 14 wins, 10 knockouts
• Naoya Inoue with 21 wins, 18 knockouts
• Tyson Fury with 30 wins, 21 knockouts
• Oleksandr Usyk with 18 wins, 13 knockouts
• Terence Crawford with 37 wins, 28 knockouts
• Errol Spence Jr. with 27 wins, 21 knockouts
• Manny Pacquiao with 62 wins, 39 knockouts
• Anthony Joshua with 24 wins, 22 knockouts

The above boxers are all well-known for their skill and abilities, and for their numerous wins too. There are plenty of other boxing players in the world, but the stars we’ve listed are generally the players worth paying attention to.

How Does Boxing Betting Work?

Like with most other sports games, betting on boxing is incredibly simple. All you have to do is find a betting website that interests you or offers you the best odds and register with it. After you’ve registered, you’ll need to verify your account by providing the website with identification documents, and you’ll need to make a deposit.

Once you’ve made a deposit, you’ll be able to place bets. You’ll just need to find boxing within the betting website’s sports selection, select the bet you want to place, adjust your wager, and then confirm the bet. Once you’ve placed your bet, you’ll need to wait for the match to play out to receive your winnings or lose your wagered money.

Boxing Betting Wagers

Like with other sports, there are several different types of wagers you can place with boxing betting. The wagers available to you will greatly depend on the betting website, which is why it’s important to shop around before registering with any one site. If you’d like to understand what the most common boxing bets are and what they mean, keep on reading.

• Outright Winner: Betting on which participant you believe will win the boxing match or whether the match will end in a draw
• Over/Under: Betting over or under the sportsbook’s prediction of how many rounds will take place within a match
• Fight Outcome: Betting on who will win a fight and how they will win, either by knockout, disqualification, judge decision, and more
• Round: Betting on who will win a fight and in which round they will win
• Method Of Victory: Betting on how a match will be won, either by knockout, judge decision, and more
• Proposition: Miscellaneous bets that can involve anything. These will vary between betting websites

Again, we can’t stress enough how the wagers available for you to bet on will depend entirely on the betting website you’re registered with. So, if there’s a big match coming up, it’s a good idea to take a look at what’s available on several websites.

Boxing Promotions

Betting websites offer plenty of promotions to use on sports. Most sportsbooks offer free bets to new users, allowing customers who register and make a deposit of £10 or more to claim a free bet and use it on any sport. However, these promotions will vary between websites and can come with strict terms and conditions, such as expiry dates, maximum wins, and odds requirements too.

Alongside new customer offers, most sportsbooks offer a range of other promotions, including enhanced odds on select games, cashback bonuses on losses, additional free bets, and they sometimes also run special promotions on big sports events, including boxing. However, you’ll need to read through the terms and conditions of a promotion before claiming it, just so you’re aware of what’s required of you, such as wagering requirements, which we’ve explained here.

Boxing Betting Odds

All boxing bets have odds that represent the likelihood of the bet happening, such as a fighter winning. They also allow you to work out how much you can make on a particular bet, depending on how much you wager. Although boxing betting odds can be confusing at first glance, they’re incredibly important when it comes to placing bets.

Boxing betting odds, and odds for all other sports, are displayed as either fractions or decimals, both of which have different ways of calculating your payout. For example, a boxing bet with fraction odds of 5/2 means for every £2 you bet, you can win £5. Meanwhile, a boxing bet with decimal odds of 5.0 is worked out as 5.0 divided by your stake, with the total deducted from your stake.

Now you know how boxing betting odds work, it’s important that you search for websites that offer you the best boxing betting odds. This will change with each match, so always keep your eyes open.

In-Play Betting

Many betting websites also allow offer in-play betting, which is the process of placing bets while a game is underway. This is great for anyone unsure about placing bets, as it allows them to watch the game before placing any bets. Most betting websites will allow you to keep track of the game by either live-streaming the event on their website or through special simulations of the game. However, it’s important to note that in live-play betting, the betting odds are always changing depending on what’s happening in the game, which can make betting somewhat risky.

Best Boxing Betting Sites

Most betting websites in the United Kingdom offer boxing bets, which means it can be a little difficult to work out which sportsbooks are the best for you. In this section, we’ve put together a list of our best boxing betting sites, along with an explanation of how we determine what the best betting sites are. First, check our recommendations for the best boxing betting sites:

MansionBet

MansionBet is another great boxing betting site. The website, which is a sister site of Mansion Casino, is giving all new users a free bet bonus, and it allows registered players to wager on numerous sports, including table tennis, football, horse racing, cricket, American football, cycling, boxing, and plenty more. If you’d like to know more about the sportsbook, check out our MansionBet review.

William Hill

William Hill is a leading UK bookmaker, both online and off. The site is great for boxing betting as well as general sports betting, it runs numerous promotions, and it also allows you to enjoy video slots, table games, jackpots, bingo rooms, poker, and so much more. Our William Hill review has more details on all of this.

Bet365

Bet365 is another big-name betting website that allows for boxing betting. You can wager on various sports, including football, boxing, basketball, table tennis, eSports, cricket, horse racing, virtual gaming, and so much more. Like all other websites here, new customers can enjoy free bet credits, and Bet365 accepts most major payment methods too. If you’d like to know more, make sure to read through our Bet365 review here.

10Bet

10Bet is an online betting website operated by Blue Star Planet Limited, and one of the best boxing betting sites. The website is giving all new users a generous welcome bonus, and it’s home to a large selection of other promotions too. Along with this, 10Bet allows you to bet on various sports, including horse racing, tennis, basketball, greyhound racing, and so much more. You can check out our 10Bet review for more information.

Betway

Our final recommendation for the best boxing betting site is Betway, one of the biggest online sports betting companies in the UK. Users registered here can enjoy a free bet, numerous sports to wager on, including boxing, tennis, football, virtual racing, and so much more. Registered users can enjoy casino, live casino, eSports, and more here. Our Betway Sports review has even more details.

All of the websites we’ve suggested here are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission, which means they’re completely safe for you to play at. In addition to providing you with a sports betting experience, most of the websites we’ve suggested also provide you with a range of casino content for you to enjoy, but this depends on the website.

How We Determine The Best Betting Sites

When working out what the best boxing betting sites are, we take a look at various factors. One of the first factors we look at is licensing and checking if the website holds a valid license from the UK Gambling Commission, the United Kingdom’s regulatory authority. This ensures that the website is completely safe to play at for anyone that is based in the United Kingdom.

We also take a look at the gambling activities available, including which sports you can bet on and whether the website offers any other content, including video slots, table games like blackjack and roulette, live casino titles, bingo rooms, jackpots, and even scratchcards. In addition to content, we check the promotions available for both new and long-term users to see what’s offered and whether the terms and conditions are fair or not. We also analyse which payment methods are accepted by the website and how long the processing times are, what and when customer support methods are available, and we check the mobile-friendliness of a betting site, which we’ll explain further below.

We believe that the best boxing betting sites provide you with plenty of sports to wager on along with a great selection of casino games and other content too. We also believe that the best sites offer new and existing players great promotions, accept most major payment methods, process withdrawals quickly, runs great customer support, and is mobile-friendly too.

Boxing Betting On Mobile

Boxing betting is mobile-friendly, and there are different ways of playing. Anyone looking to place boxing bets on their mobile can do so by either playing in your smartphone’s internet browser or by downloading a dedicated mobile betting app. Playing in your smartphone’s browser is easy, as all you need to do is load up the betting website in your web browser and then either sign up or log in. Once you’ve done that, you’ll simply have to find the bet you want to place, adjust your wager, and confirm it. That’s it! There’s no need to download anything to your device.

When playing through a dedicated mobile app, however, you’ll need to first check whether the betting site you’ve registered with offers an app. If it doesn’t, you’ll need to register with a site that does. If the website does offer an app, you’ll have to download it from the Google Play or Apple App Stores, which takes up storage space on your device. Once downloaded, you simply need to log in or sign up, and then enjoy all of the gambling activities available.

Placing bets either in-app or in-browser works in the same way. The main difference in using either of the methods is that betting apps usually only provide you with betting activities. If the website also offers casino, bingo and live content, you’ll usually have to download separate apps, like casino or bingo apps. If you play in-browser, you won’t have these issues and can freely access all content.

With so many different betting sites and brands available, it may be a little confusing to pick out the best boxing betting apps. Rather than giving you a list of what we consider the best boxing betting apps, we encourage you to take a look at the apps of the betting sites you’re already registered with since you would have found these sites to meet your needs. Generally speaking, the app will be no different from the betting sites and will give you everything you need to enjoy boxing betting on mobile. And if you’re registered with multiple websites, it may be a good idea to check all of their apps to ensure you get the best possible odds all the time. Finally, if you find yourself running short on storage, don’t be afraid to delete apps from your device; you’re always able to re-download them again!

Boxing Betting Tips

Like most sports, there aren’t any strategies you can follow to ensure you land wins. The reason for this is that the result of matches and tournaments are dependent on player performance and outside factors, rather than on how you place your bet. To help you achieve your best possible result, we’ve put together a list of boxing betting tips we think might help you when placing bets, check them out below:

#1: Analyse Fighter’s Abilities

Before placing a bet on any match, make sure you heavily analyse the fighters. Rather than going through the various ranking systems and other statistics, we suggest you purely analyse each fighter’s strength and talent and work out which you believe are more likely to win based on that. It’s much less confusing than taking in lots of data.

#2: Check Fighter’s Past

When placing a boxing bet, it’s incredibly important to research a fighter’s past record in addition to checking their ability and skill as a boxer. Looking at past matches can help you work out what a fighter might be weak or strong against, if they suffer from any injuries, and whether they’ve ever made any fouls when playing. All of this information can help you work out which fighter stands the better chance of winning.

#3: Don’t Always Go For The Favourite

Sometimes it can be incredibly enticing to simply place a bet on the bookies’ favourites, but we suggest you generally avoid doing this. Always do your independent research on fighters and always go with your gut.

#4: Try In-Play Betting

If you’re really unsure about your boxing bets, it may be a good idea to try out in-play or live betting, which allows you to watch the game and place bets while it’s playing out. This essentially gives you a little extra time to work out which fighter to bet on. As we’ve already mentioned, the betting boxing odds change as the game plays, which can make boxing betting tricky.

#5: Don’t Worry If You Lose

One of the biggest tips we can give you is to not worry if you lose. Gambling should always remain a fun activity, and if you ever find yourself stressing about losses, it may be a good idea to take a break. Try not to worry about losses as they will happen, avoid chasing losses, and if needed, try out any of the safer and responsible gambling tools available with your betting site to ensure you avoid developing gambling-related harm.

We hope our boxing betting tips will help you when it comes to placing bets. Betting on boxing can be incredibly complicated and confusing, but if you research players and their skills, you should hopefully stand a great chance. Good luck!