‘Suspicious Betting Detected’ At UFC Vegas 64

A lot of money flooded sportsbooks predicting a first round TKO loss for Darrick Minner. And then Minner blew his knee out in the first.

The UFC recently released an edict banning its fighters and their teams from betting on mixed martial arts fights. Now we have an example of why it’s just a bad idea that opens to door to insider betting.

During UFC Vegas 64, Darrick Minner fell to Shayilan Nuerdanbieke via TKO in the first round. In the hours leading up to the fight, sportsbooks watched as a flood of money came in from bettors on Nuerdanbieke. And not just Nuerdanbieke, but Nuerdanbieke to win in fewer than 2.5 rounds, and even Nuerdanbieke to win by KO in the first round.

So much action came in on Nuerdanbieke that he moved from a -220 favorite to -420 favorite. The Chinese fighter would win after Minner seemingly injured his knee just over a minute into the first round. The whole thing was suspicious enough that betting integrity firm U.S. Integrity opened an investigation into the incident and informed bookmakers of the situation.

“Our goal as always is to notify the industry of any potential nefarious, abnormal or suspicious activity as soon as possible, so they can take action as quickly as possible,” U.S. Integrity president Matthew Holt told ESPN. “In this case, we hope that by sending a couple hours before the fight started, we may have helped prevent some more suspicious bets from getting through.”

While it looks like news of Darrick Minner’s injured knee leaked from his camp in the hours leading up to fight night, there’s the added complication that Minner is coached by James Krause. Krause runs a betting picks service complete with a podcast and Discord server for paying members. In the past he’s said he makes more money from gambling on the UFC than he ever did fighting for them.

There’s no evidence thus far that Krause bet on Minner to lose or told others to do it. But once you see an extremely suspicious line move like that in a fight where a coach is deep into sports betting, it’s easy to let your imagination run wild as to what happened. The UFC made a big announcement in mid-October specifically to avoid a situation like this, but it happened anyways. Now the sport will have to reckon with the sportsbook demon it has integrated into the broadcast so deeply.

What do you think, Maniacs? Is there more to this story than a couple of insiders getting word of Minner’s knee injury before the fight? Is this just another sign that sports betting has taken too deep of a hold of MMA? Let us know in the comments!