Each week, we talk to Sports Interaction to get their thoughts on what’s going on in the sports betting world, with an emphasis on sports betting in Canada.
Sports Interaction is a Canadian sportsbook that caters specifically to Canucks. They offer convenient deposit methods as well as a wide selection of betting props on many events.
Here’s our Q&A with them for this week.
(Posted July 7, 2016)
UFC 200 Betting
Over the past decade, mixed martial arts popularity appears to have overtaken boxing in North America. Is that true in the betting world too as fight fans get ready for UFC 200?
MMA is much more popular than boxing now – unless we’re talking about a megafight like we saw last year between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
That type of boxing match is an outlier though. The fact is, the UFC is the organization with all the stars and now has a reported price tag of about $4 billion.
The UFC knows how to market its stars and now that they’re rolling out a couple of fight cards per month, MMA is starting to creep into mainstream media.
This all translates to more MMA betting action while boxing takes a back seat.
UFC 200 Odds
There’s no denying the UFC 200 card is stacked with great fights. What do the odds look like as we approach fight night?
Well, this is International Fight Week in Las Vegas, so the UFC is actually putting on three events in Las Vegas – Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
We’ll see solid action Thursday and Friday, but Saturday is the card everyone has circled. Right now there are 10 UFC 200 fights with odds of 3-1 or closer, so we should be in for a lot of competitive matchups.
We currently have Jon Jones as a -300 favourite after he dipped to -265 last week with a bunch of Daniel Cormier action for the main event. (Note: Jones was suspended by the UFC Wednesday night for an apparent doping violation and won’t be fighting in UFC 200.)
Mark Hunt just moved to a -145 favourite against Brock Lesnar, but we expect to see some support on the underdog from wrestling fans before Saturday.
Brock Lesnar betting odds versus Mark Hunt at Sports Interaction
Wimbledon Betting
A lot of bettors were probably shocked to see Novak Djokovic ousted early at Wimbledon. How has his exit changed how bettors see this tournament shaking out?
We’re definitely seeing a lot more action on Canadian Milos Raonic, that’s for sure. Raonic has been a bettor’s favourite all season and it seems like he’s finally putting all parts of his game together at the same time.
He faces a tough task in Roger Federer as a +122 underdog Friday in the semifinals, but the Canadian betting public are certainly behind him.
Roger Federer vs. Milos Raonic Wimbledon Semifinal Odds at Sports Interaction
British Open Betting Odds
Finally, next week the golf world will have all eyes on Royal Troon for the 145th edition of the British Open. Just how popular is this golf tournament and who do bettors like so far?
The British Open and the Masters are usually the two biggest tournaments in terms of betting handle and next week is trending that way again.
Jason Day tops the odds board again this week at +700, followed by Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth at +800 and Dustin Johnson at +900.
The majority of our early bets are supporting one of those top four right now, but you can always count on some Sergio Garcia (+2000) and Phil Mickelson (+4000) as these big tournaments get closer.