Sportsbook: ‘Ridiculous’ Amount Of Bets Are On Conor McGregor

As expected, tomorrow night’s (Sat., August 26, 2017) massive Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor boxing match has incited a ton of gambling action, where hopeful bettors will anxiously await the fight’s result from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.

But just which direction all of that action went may or may not surprise you, as so many gamblers have placed a wager on McGregor to beat undefeated boxing legend Mayweather that “The Notorious'” odds have been skewed much lower than that of several other world-class boxers Mayweather has faced, even though the Irish MMA star has never fought in a professional boxing match.

That’s because of the sheer number of tickets betting on McGregor in comparison to the relatively few on the still-favored Mayweather according to MGM VP of race and sport Jay Rood, who told MMA Fighting’s Marc Raimondi that an alarming 6,700 ticket had been written for McGregor in comparison to only 330 for Mayweather as of yesterday morning. Overall, that discrepancy is a shocking one according to the experienced casino exec:

“When we book McGregor in MMA, he’s usually the favorite and he gets a good amount of support,” Rood said. “When he fought [Nate] Diaz in the rematch, that drew pretty good, equal action on both sides. But generally, if McGregor is fighting somebody he draws pretty good action. But in this particular matchup, the number of tickets written to him is a ridiculous amount.”

That ‘ridiculous’ amount has lead to McGregor coming in as a +350 underdog to -550 favorite Mayweather as of yesterday, numbers that still seem to favor “Money” quite heavily – until you take into account the fact that a fighter with no boxing matches ever is taking on the man many feel is arguably the greatest boxer of all time. By comparison, Mayweather opened as a sizable -1200 favorite with McGregor at +700 when the fight was announced, leading to a windfall of wagers based on his popularity, something that Rood admitted the sportsbooks didn’t quite see coming:

“We sort of missed the mark on understanding what his popularity was going to be in this, when you couple it with the fact that you’re getting a really great price on a premier athlete, who is a proven champion in his own right,” Rood said. “Like we said, it’s under the boxing rules, so the bookies and everyone has taken a pretty strong position that he’s going to be at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to that.”

So Vegas is set to take quite a hit if McGregor came pull off the seemingly impossible and topple Mayweather in the arena 49 boxers have tried and failed, but Rood revealed he wouldn’t have it any other way, as he’s obviously playing the percentages as he always does, and always wants to be on Mayweather’s side when it comes to betting:

“We always need the ‘dog in the Mayweather fights, because they are such a big price,” Rood said. “We always need Mayweather to beat the ’dogs. We’re in the same position we always are with Mayweather. Mayweather has been boxing under the MGM roof a long time. We sort of always book the fight so that we need Mayweather decision. This fight is no different. We’re booking it that way and I wouldn’t want to have any other side than Mayweather. I want the guy that’s 49-0 to make some money. I might get upset, but at least I’m playing the percentages.”

But while many more people have bet on McGregor, much more money has actually gone in on Mayweather, with a $1 million wager placed on the aptly named “Money” set to garner “only” $182,000 if he wins, and the average bet on Mayweather sitting at $6,000 compared to an average bet of $125 on McGregor.

So while Rood acknowledged Vegas will get knocked out in terms of a sportsbook perspective if McGregor does win, he also noted that if that is the case, Sin City will be able to recap much of that money in other ways:

“If he wins, MGM will have a losing night,” Rood said. “And the state of Nevada, from a sports betting perspective, will have a losing night. But if he wins, there’s gonna be lines out the door of every sports book cashier and a lot of happy people flowing out into the rest of the casino and the clubs and everything. From that perspective, the money will be flowing through the city.”