Boxing holds a special place in the hearts of sports fans and bettors far and wide. It’s a truly international sport, with many of its star fighters originating from different corners of the globe. This, plus the nature of the sport itself, makes boxing such a fun spectacle to wager on. To get in on the fun, you’ll need a good boxing betting site and we have some in mind.

Beyond this, we’re also dishing out know-how about boxing betting, in general. No, we’re not giving you exact picks to make, but instead, we’re here to share information that will make you a more-rounded boxing bettor. That includes tips, getting the best odds, and betting types you’ll find. Consider this article a punching-bag exercise in the art of boxing gambling.

 

Boxing Betting Sites

Two things that boxing has going for it is there’s no offseason and no single promotion dominates the sport (e.g. UFC in the MMA world). Almost every single weekend, there’s a boxing fight card taking place somewhere across the world. Due to that, there’s a proliferation of boxing betting sites across the market.

You’ll need to find a reliable sportsbook that carries boxing bets for each of these events. While there’s no shortage of online betting sites these days, not all are created equal. A few bookies stand tall above the rest. Here are our top recommendations for best boxing betting sites:

Bovada

Boxing and Bovada, Bovada and boxing — doesn’t that just sound like it goes hand-in-hand? Well, it certainly is the case at this bookmaker.

Bovada has gained a large user base in North America for two reasons. One, it’s an easy-to-use interface. But two, its sportsbook menu is robust and that includes its boxing bet selection. You name a pro fight and there’s probably odds available at Bovada. This dichotomy makes the betting site a premier online boxing betting destination.

Better yet, Bovada is giving new players to its platform up to $250 in sign-up bonuses. Just fund your account and they’ll match you by 50 percent. Boxing lines and bonuses, what more does a bettor need?

SportsBetting.ag

If you thought Bovada’s welcome bonus was good, get your eyes on the one offered by SportsBetting.ag. They too will match a first-time deposit by 100 percent. However, the max payout is far more lucrative, topping out at $1000. Just be sure to enter promo code “SB1000” in the cashier to earn the sweet deal.

A cool $1000 bonus is a great way to kickstart your wagering on boxing, which is well-supported on SportsBetting.ag. Not only will you find pre-fight lines on most boxing bouts, but there’s also a good amount of prop wagers in the platform. More on these type of bets later in this article.

BetDSI

Like we said earlier, you can realistically bet on boxing fights year-round. That’s advantageous for a bookie like BetDSI, which features a top-of-the-line rewards program for players.

The loyalty service works similarly to a comp program that you see in physical casinos. There are three levels that users can rank up through — Gold (automatically enrolled upon depositing $300), Silver, and Platinum. Each tier has its own unique perks, but the biggest one being an ability to swap earned points for cold-hard cash.

This rewards program really makes BetDSI one of top boxing betting sites, especially if you’ll be gambling on boxing regularly. The BetDSI sportsbook itself has plenty of bet boxing options to keep you busy throughout the year.

WagerWeb

One more sportsbook that checks all the boxes is WagerWeb. For one, its boxing menu is as deep, rivaling the boxing bets in Vegas casinos.

Two, WagerWeb takes a different approach to its bonus. Unlike SportsBetting.ag, there isn’t one end-all, be-all bonus at WagerWeb. No, there’s actually three and players have the option to choose which fits their needs most. That decision will come down to how they value cashback vs. free play vs. rollover requirements. Either way, it’s always a plus to have extra options.

Of course, where to bet on boxing isn’t just limited to the four aforementioned bookies. If you’re not sold yet and are looking for more sites to bet on boxing, check out out the hand-picked list below:

 

How To Bet On Boxing

There's a reason why boxing is dubbed "the sweet science." From afar, the sport looks simple — two scantily-clad fighters trying to beat the daylights out of each other in a ring. But look deeper, and the complexities of boxing become more apparent. The baiting. The anticipation. The chess-like tactics. The mental fortitude. We could go on and on. In the same respect, there's a science to how to bet on boxing.

You see, you just can't bet on the fighter that's bigger and expect to win all the time. No, no, you'll need a more-nuanced strategy to win at boxing over the long haul. While you formulate this strategy, we wanted to share some insights that you may want to keep top-of-mind:

Cut Through The Noise

The sport of boxing is filled with hoopla and hype. Unlike UFC, there's not one championship per weight class. Instead, different sanctioning bodies (e.g. IBF, WBO, WBC, WBA) each have their own belt, which makes owning a major title less significant.

In the same light, promoters also inflate their fighter's career record by lining up underwhelming opponents. And don't even get us started on pound-for-pound rankings, which is another made-up system to artificially boost up boxers.

So if you're betting on a fight, don't let these meaningless accolades and rankings sway your decision. Instead, watch the fight tape closely and really evaluate a boxer's fighting style. Are they a southpaw or orthodox? What are their strengths and weaknesses? This will tell you more about a fighter than any overhyped achievement.

Beware Of The Judges

For better or worse, boxing is notorious for its "rigged" judging process. In many circles, it's widely believed that if a fight goes the distance, a judge's scorecard is tainted by future business prospects more so than what actually took place in the bout.

This is especially true when the fight involves a star fighter that's still young. You see, nothing diminishes a fighter's star power more than an in-ring loss. That's why it's not uncommon to see "controversial" wins given to the stars to keep their record and prestige unblemished.

Look, we can't definitively prove that boxing is rigged. However, there's been one too many head-scratching decisions over the years to not believe something is up. After all, where there's smoke, there's fire, right?

Keep this top of mind when wagering. Before making your bet, ask yourself this important question — business-wise, the sport stands to benefit most from which fighter winning? Of course, that won't save you if they got knocked out early, but if the bout ends up going to decision, there's a chance you and your bet will be bailed out by the rigged judging.

Roll With The Punches

An often overlooked aspect of betting is the mental side. While most bettors get hung up on odds or the news cycle, similar attention should be paid to the little voice in your head.

You see, gambling mirrors boxing in a lot of ways. There will be triumphant victories, but there will also be times when you're knocked down to the canvas (or two or three times). When the latter happens, that internal voice might urge you to "hang up the gloves" per se.

Surely, there will be times when staying down is perhaps the right call, but always remember betting is like a 12-round championship fight. If you want to win, you're gonna have to slug your way through it and take some damage along the way. A never-say-die attitude will serve you well during the inevitable rough patches that every gambler goes through. So take it one round at a time and forget about going for that lucky-punch KO (cause it usually doesn't pan out).

Boxing Betting Types

Before we let you loose to betting on boxing, we wanted to cover how does boxing betting work. These are the most-popular betting options you'll see at online boxing betting sites:

Moneyline

It doesn't get simpler than this wager — pick which fighter will win the bout. That's it!

Typically, bookies will set one fighter as the favorite (their odds will be negative) and one the underdog (positive line for them). In semi-rare cases, the fight will be set as a pick-em, where odds are split evenly between both fighters.

In the event that a fight ends in a draw, you'll "push" your bet and earn back your original stake no matter who you bet on.

Over/Unders

In this online bet for boxing, you're betting on when the fight will end. A bookmaker will pick a point in the fight, say 7.5 rounds (this means the 1:30 mark of the seventh round), and you wager whether the fight will end before or after that point.

New bettors love to bet the under, which indicates an early-round knockout. While that's fun to root for, heed our previous advice and pay attention to individual fighting styles instead. Sure, it would make sense to side with under when dealing with a power-based fighter, but less so for one with a defensive-first style.

Props

Here, you're gambling on different events within a fight. Examples of props you might see include whether a fight will end via knockout or decision, exactly what round a fight will finish on, or the over/under on total knock downs.

Welp, you just completed a crash course in how boxing betting works. Phew, that was a lot. But now it's on you to take all this knowledge and use it to bet on boxing. Remember, always roll with the punches!

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