Some crazy line movement in the Shayilan
Nuerdanbieke vs. Darrick Minner fight over the last 90 minutes.Average odds have moved from -237 to -362 for Shayilan
— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter)
November 5, 2022
A recent Ultimate Fighting Championship bout is under
the crosshairs of an important betting organization.
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On Saturday, Nuerdanbieke
Shayilan faced and defeated Darrick
Minner at
UFC Fight Night 214. Shayilan absorbed a body kick, and Minner
clutched at his leg and hobbled back to the cage wall. A knee from
the Chinese fighter and some vicious ground-and-pound elbows put an
end to the match at 1:07 of Round 1, but that was only part of the
story. Ahead of their pairing – as in, within hours of the matchup,
after the fight card had begun – some unusual betting activity
developed.
Multiple individuals and outlets on social media, including
TSN, began to notice that significant money had come in on
Shayilan to win the fight. The line moved across the sportsbooks
from a favorable -220 to a massive -370, on average, in the span of
just a few hours. Additionally, the betting lines of the fight
lasting under 2.5 rounds moved from about -140 to -190 in that same
stretch of time. This, as rumor spread on social media, may have
been due to an injury that Minner carried into the contest.
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According to
ESPN on Sunday night, this shift in the action did not go
unnoticed by the sportsbooks. The unnamed bookmakers contacted the
firm U.S. Integrity, which is an independent, non-government
organization that reviews and analyzes the sports betting
landscape. U.S. Integrity typically works with both the books and
the state gaming departments to notify them of any suspicious
behavior or problematic circumstances.
“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,” Matthew Holt,
president of U.S. Integrity 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.”
According to the ESPN report, Minner’s knee was “absolutely
injured” prior to the fight. However, Minner’s manager, Andrew Lee,
stated he was “unaware of anything like this.” As fight night
progressed, fans and media members alike speculated as to the
knowledge of the injury. Sections of the fanbase believed that
Minner lost on purpose, and other parts felt that Minner should
have not been medically cleared to fight in the first place. This
concern follows the unfortunate showing of T.J.
Dillashaw at
UFC 280, where he was allowed to compete despite major damage
to his shoulder that at least in part contributed to his loss to
Aljamain
Sterling. Ahead of that bantamweight title fight, the betting
line did not shift much on fight day, but rumors of Dillashaw’s
shoulder injury had not spread before his matchup.
The UFC recently released a policy change regarding betting on
fighters. Specifically, those related to, training with or
otherwise close to specific athletes cannot bet on their matches.
This follows practically every major sport, although it came with
some backlash from the competitors as many rely on betting on
themselves as a major income stream. This internal regulation
prohibits fighters from betting on themselves, or more importantly,
betting against themselves. It also disallows them from placing
bets on their matches, including round or decision-based lines, to
avoid any appearance of impropriety.