UFC to enter sports betting world with proprietary in-fight betting app

Regulated sports betting is exploding across the United States and professional sports leagues are all looking to get a piece of the action. In that siloed off world, the in-play wagering segment is a major growth area that provides the leagues an in via their official data streams.
But what if you were the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and your sport wasn’t quite as friendly to in-play wagering as professional football or baseball? In that case, you’d have to do what the UFC has done and build your own in-play wagering app from scratch.
According a report from Bloomberg News, the UFC’s corporate owner Endeavor Group Holdings Inc. is all set to launch UFC Event Centre in an effort to bring in-play wagering to the fast-paced world of mixed-martial arts. UFC Event Centre will take that official UFC data stream and use it as the basis for 50 different in-play wagers in an effort to help the group cash in on the excitement of in-play wagering. Examples of in-play wagering for the UFC include options like the number of take downs; how many punches a fighter lands in a single round; and how much time a fighter spends on the mat.
Lawrence Epstein, UFC’s chief operating officer told Bloomberg that capitalizing on in-play mania will help fans connect with fights on a new level saying, “In-game betting is the fastest-growing part of the sports-gaming industry. Some of the stuff we’re doing is stuff that hasn’t been done with respect to UFC in the past.”
Epstein also points out that the UFC’s core demographic, 21-44-year-old men, is also the sweet spot for contemporary sports betting.
So far, there’s no word on when the app is going to be introduced.