UFC Fight under investigation for suspicious betting

Normally when a fighter is already an underdog large amounts of money does not come in on the favorite, especially when it is a preliminary fight however that is exactly what happened at UFC Vegas 64 when a fight between Darrick Minner and Shayilan Nuerdanbieke got the attention of federal regulators.   Nuerdanbieke who was a -220 favorite hours before the fight quickly swelled into a -420 favorite due to the amount of action that was being placed on the fight.  Winning in the 1st round via knockout the bout triggered an investigation at the federal level

ESPN was the first to report that the US Integrity, an organization responsible for overseeing suspicious behavior by analyzing changes in betting data against a benchmark of normal betting activity.  Minner who threw two kicks appeared to injure his knee, or possibly was already injured when entering the competition.  Falling against the fence Nuerdanbieke took full advantage and fired punches until the ref stopped the fight at 1:07 of the first round. Minner who’s coach James Krause is associated with betting hosting “The 1%Club” podcast and a discord channel where he shares betting tips. While Krause officially retired in 2020 he has made the transition to coaching full time and recently said on the MMA Hour, “I bet every single card just about every fight. I have a discord, like 2,000 members in it, we crush it. Last week, we destroyed it. I take over people’s accounts and play for them, I do pretty welll. I make more money gambling on MMA than I do anything else.”

Those statements came prior to the UFC banning fighters, coaches, and anyone else with “inside information” from wagering on fights.  The UFC has released an official statement to Yahoo which was

“Like many professional sports organizations, UFC works with an independent betting integrity service to monitor wagering activity on our events,” UFC officials said. “Our betting integrity partner, Don Best Sports, a leading global supplier of real-time betting data for North American sporting events, will conduct a thorough review of the facts and report its findings.

“At this time, we have no reason to believe either of the athletes involved in the bout, or anyone associated with their teams, behaved in an unethical or irresponsible manner.”

It will be interesting to see what the results of the investigation discover.