Boxing Betting Ireland 2024

What are the Most Popular Boxing Betting Markets?

Gambling and boxing have always had a close relationship since as far back as the length of time the sport itself has in Ireland. Irish punters are always looking to place wagers on their favourite boxers to win in events.

While boxing betting markets don't have the same range of betting options as team sports like football, basketball, and many others, boxing fans have more than enough betting options to enjoy. Irish punters can place bets on many aspects of a boxing match, from who will win the fight to how the fight will be won, how long a fight will last, and many other areas. Our team of betting experts have gone through some of the more popular boxing betting markets and explained them in detail.

Outright markets

The easiest type of boxing bet to place is an outright bet. This is when you simply bet on the result of a fight. For example, you might bet on Tyson Fury to beat Anthony Joshua at odds of 2/1.

Match Betting

Match betting is the simplest boxing betting market available to Irish punters online. It involves a punter making wagers on the eventual outcome of a boxing event.

• Win Betting involves placing wagers on one of the two boxers in a matchup to win the fight outright. These are the best bets to pick when you are 100% certain that a fighter will beat the opponent. The only downside is that when there is a clear favourite in these cases, the boxing odds are usually relatively low, and a punter will have to bet a large amount of money to win a small amount.

• Draw Betting: Occasionally, boxing events can end up undecided with no clear winner, leading to a draw. As such, punters can also make a wager on the outcome of events being a draw. Since draws are not frequently seen in boxing events, these markets usually come with some of the best boxing betting odds.

Round End Betting

One of the most exciting things about boxing is that, unlike other sports like football, basketball, horse racing, and many others, a matchup doesn't have to take the full time allocated before completion. A boxing matchup can end with a knockout in a matter of seconds into the first round, and it can also go up to the very last round. 

So, another type of market that Irish punters can enjoy when it comes to betting on boxing is predicting when the fight will end. Here, a punter will have to predict which of the 12 rounds the fight will end or whether it will go the distance and end without a knockout, technical knockout, or disqualification. As it can be pretty challenging to predict which round a boxing match will end in, these markets often come with pretty impressive odds.

Round Betting

Round betting is extremely popular in betting. The Round betting market is similar to the round-end market in that it involves punters making wagers on which round a boxing event will end. However, in addition to this, a punter will also need to pick the fighter they think will win. So, it means that a player will pick the fighter to win the match and which round they will triumph. 

Within this market, punters also can place wagers on the match ending in a decision by the judge or a draw. Since these markets pack more heat than the round ending markets, it also comes with better and larger prices. This is one of the more speculative types of bet you can place, but you can typically find good odds. For example, you could bet on Tommy Fury to beat Jake Paul in round three at odds of 4/1.

Group Betting

As is with most sports betting, you can never be entirely sure of what will happen in a boxing event. So, making predictions on specific single-round betting or single-round end betting like the match will end in the sixth round or Mayweather will win a fight in the seventh round can be challenging to get accurately. 

This is where the Group betting market comes in handy. In this market, punters are given a chance to predict a fight-ending within a group of rounds instead of predicting specific single rounds.

• Round group Betting:Here, punters predict who will win a boxing event and what group of rounds the event will end between rounds 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, by decision, or a draw. Some sports betting sites also offer their customers more groups like 1-2, 1-4, and 1-6 round groups.

• Round End group betting:Like the round betting market, some sites offer their customers the opportunity of predicting which group of rounds a boxing match will end. This usually comes in ‘1-3’ groups, ‘1-2’ groups, ‘1-4’ groups, and ‘1-6’ groups.

Over/Under Rounds and Group Rounds

Betting on the precise round a fight will end in can be tricky. That’s where the Over/Under market and group rounds betting markets step in. These give you a much bigger selection and can be just as rewarding. Over/under markets allow you to choose whether you believe a fight will go over or under a number of rounds, while group rounds betting lets you select a range of rounds that the fight might end in. For example, you could bet on a fight going over 5.5 rounds or ending in rounds 9-12.

Here, punters predict if a match will last longer or less than a specified number of rounds. For example, let's say a matchup between Antony Joshua and Tyson Fury comes with an 8.5 Over/Under market price. Betting ‘Over’ means that you expect the fight to last up to nine rounds or more, and betting ‘Under’ means that you expect the fight to end within the first 8 rounds.

Method of Victory Betting

Unlike other sports, boxing can come to an end in a number of ways. So another type of bet on boxing is the ‘Method of Victory’ market. As we have mentioned earlier in this guide, a boxer can win a boxing event by knockout (KO), technical knockout (KO), disqualification, unanimous decision, split decision, draw or the judges’ decision. The market that capitalises on this aspect of boxing is the ‘Method of Victory’ market. Here, a punter has to place a bet on a particular boxer to win a fight and how the said fighter will win the fight.For example, Mayweather wins by KO, or there are also grouped options, for example, Mayweather to win by KO, TKO, or disqualification.

This is often between winning by either knockout, technical knockout, or disqualification and winning by decision. With good knowledge about the boxing scene and solid boxing betting tips, punters can win consistently betting on these types of markets. As this market involves a punter making predictions on both the winner and method of victory, the odds price is usually higher than typical match betting.

Fight to Go the Distance Bets

Typically, boxing events will last for a certain number of rounds (usually 12 rounds in professional boxing), but this will only happen if there is no KO, TKO, or disqualification during the fight. So, another famous market in betting on boxing is the 'fight to go the distance' market, and it involves punters placing wagers on whether a fight will last the complete 12 rounds without a winner or not. Since this is a risky market, as fights can go any direction, you must do thorough research on the boxers involved before you take part in any betting on boxing events.

Other Boxing Prop Markets

You will find all sorts of prop markets to bet on for the big boxing matches. In the same way that some boxing matches attract more audiences than others; boxing online betting markets vary. The fights with more hype and attract more audiences will naturally have more betting markets. So, depending on the magnitude of the fight, many bookmakers create additional prop-based odds markets to attract more bets from punters. This can range from fairly conventional stuff, like whether someone will get knocked down,number of punches landed by a specific fighter, and what minute a fight will be won to more whacky offerings, like what song Tyson Fury will sing if he wins. These can be a good bit of fun to bet on but are often not seen as serious bets.

History of Boxing in Ireland

Much of the history of boxing started overseas, with the sport becoming an officially recognized sport in the British Isles in the early 1700s. Before this time, the sport was quite chaotic with no referees, weight divisions or round limits. A boxing match would only finish when the outcome is evident with the winner still standing and the loser no longer in the condition to keep fighting. 

After the sport became recognized, different rules came in gradually, making the sport more civil and no longer chaotic. Boxers in Ireland showed a lot of promise as the sport evolved over the years, with many Irish boxers becoming British Bare Knuckle Champions. 

1911 spelt a new era for the world of boxing in Ireland as the Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) was formed to serve as the national governing body for amateur boxing in Ireland. The IABA's primary role was to develop, foster, and promote amateur boxing in all the 32 counties of Ireland. The body has done a lot for the world of boxing in Ireland over the years, including building the first purpose-built boxing stadium in the world in 1939. The establishment of the Boxing Union of Ireland (BUI), a body tasked with governing and sanctioning professional boxing in Ireland in 1980, also brought about a new turn for the Irish professional boxing scene.

Boxing Venues in Ireland

Both the amateur and professional world of boxing has been gaining much traction in Ireland, which is significantly more so for the amateurs. Today, there are over 28,000 boxers in training in over 350 clubs in Ireland. When it comes to where boxing competitions take place in Ireland, there are two main venues.

• National Stadium: Known as the first and only purpose-built boxing stadium in the world, ‘Ireland National Boxing Stadium’ (aka National Sporting Arena) is the stage for amateur and professional boxing in Ireland. This venue host over 55 days of boxing every year alongside other events.
• National Basketball Arena: Another venue that has hosted its fair share of boxing events in Ireland is the National Basketball arena (aka Tallaght Arena).

More of the Biggest Boxing Venues

While boxing is all the rage in Ireland, we know that it is a global phenomenon too. When it comes to boxing competitions world wide, these are some of the biggest boxing venues out of the Emerald Isle:

Madison Square Garden, New York City

When it comes to boxing’s most iconic venues, Madison Square Garden has to be at the top of everyone’s list. Dubbed ‘The Mecca of Boxing’ MSG has played host to all of the sport’s greatest stars, with everyone from Muhammad Ali to Wladimir Klitschko gracing the ring there. It has also housed some of the biggest fights in the sport's history and is still the one venue that every boxer dreams of headlining. 

MGM Grand, Las Vegas 

The MGM Grand Garden Arena, known as the MGM Grand, may not be the biggest venue in terms of capacity in Vegas, but it is definitely one of the most iconic. The MGM was particularly popular during the 90s and the early 2000s, playing host to some of the biggest fights of the period, including Mike Tyson’s rematch with Evander Holyfield and Oscar De La Hoya’s matches with Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. In more recent times, it has witnessed Floyd Mayweather’s highly anticipated showdown with Manny Pacquaio in 2015 and Tyson Fury’s first rematch with Deontay Wilder in 2020.

Wembley Stadium, London

Wembley Stadium is the home of sports in England. The London-based venue has a capacity of 90,000, making it the perfect stage for boxing’s biggest fights. The stadium opened its doors in 2007 and hosted its first major boxing match in 2014 when Carl Froch defeated George Groves by knockout. Since then, both Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua have headlined the stadium in front of sold-out crowds, cementing Britain’s status as the home of some of the best boxing talent in the world.

Boxing Fights

Unlike sports like football, basketball, rugby, and many other spectator sports, boxing competitions do not have a fixed or regular season. Professional fighters challenge each other in non-title fights and title fights for championship titles. As such, there is a need for any boxing betting enthusiast to stay informed of the latest boxing news to know the events taking place anytime.

That being said, boxing is a combat sport where two fighters wearing protective gloves throw punches at each other in a boxing ring over a series of one-to-three minutes intervals called rounds. The ring of the bell signals the end of one round and the beginning of another. A referee who will be responsible for judging and controlling the fighters' conduct is usually in the ring with the competitors.

How Boxing is Won

While boxing is a pretty popular spectator sport and a favourite for many people across the globe, not everyone understands how boxing works, especially how the fights are won. That being said, the basic rules of how to win boxing events are pretty simple and not too complicated for a novice to understand. A fighter can win a boxing contest in one of three ways: by knockout (KO), technical knockout (TKO), and the judges’ decision.

The knockout is the first and most known winning method in boxing. It happens when a boxer knocks his opponent down to the floor, and the opponent is no longer conscious enough to answer the referee’s ten counts. 

The second method, the technical knockout, happens when the referee stops the fight altogether because he believes one of the two fighters has sustained too much damage and cannot safely continue the match. TKO can also be declared if one fighter’s corner throws in the towel or the attending physician at ringside stops the fight.

The third winning method happens when a fight is left undecided within the twelve rounds. In this case, the winner of the fight goes down to the judges' decision. Three neutral judges score each round on a 10-point scale throughout the fight during most boxing matches. 

So, when a boxing bout is left undecided, the winner will be the fighter who scored best with the judges. This decision can either be unanimous (when all three judges award the same boxer the win) or split (when two judges award the boxer fighter the win). It is also noteworthy that fighters can also win boxing matches if their opponents frequently break the rules and are disqualified.

Boxing Weight Divisions

During the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the world of boxing discovered the need for separating boxing into different divisions because of the apparent advantage that physically big contestants have over smaller contestants. This resulted in boxing being divided into different weight classes, which has increased to 17 weight classes today. Each boxer is allowed to only fight in their weight class, which creates a safer environment for boxing competitions and keeps the sport fair. The table below highlights all the different weight class divisions in the boxing scene today.