Jake Paul confirms three-fight plan for 2023 + Joins PFL

The latest chapter in the career of Jake Paul was unveiled this week. The part-time influencer, actor, entrepreneur and combat sports star has signed a multi-year and multi-fight deal with the Professional Fighters League (PFL) to compete in their newly formed Super League.

The PFL itself is a smaller rival Mixed Martial Arts league trying to compete with industry giants Ultimate Fighting Championship and Bellator. PFL differs in that their fighters compete in a seasonal format that looks more like a team-sport structure with a regular season, playoffs and a yearly champion. The regular PFL has a women’s lightweight division and five men’s divisions broken down in weight classes.

Paul helped to found and will join a new division dubbed Super Fight. It has no weight classes but rather will feature combatants with high name value in bouts that will air on pay-per-view, streaming service DAZN and ESPN. Paul owns an undisclosed equity stake in Super Fight and is officially dubbed “head of fighter advocacy”.

That ties in with the big angle Super Fight hopes to take advantage of here. UFC generally pays their fighters less than 20 percent of the revenue of the fight, whereas Super fight will dole out 50% and higher. That and Jake Paul’s name attachment will likely attract big name UFC fighters to sign on. Think LIV Golf versus the PGA minus the Saudi Royal Family angle.

The buzz surrounding Paul is quite timely too, as he has been a part of a sportsbook called “Betr” which has launched in Paul’s homestate of Ohio.

The buzz surrounding Paul is quite timely too, as he has been a part of a sportsbook called “Betr” which has launched in Paul’s homestate of Ohio.

Buckeye state residents can now legally wager on the Westlake, Ohio native Paul in Super Fight and all other combat sports at several sportsbooks, including at Bet365 Ohio. You can take advantage of their generous $200 welcome bonus. Just sign up, get verified and deposit at least $10

Paul does not have an official fight scheduled yet, but he anticipates starting sometime in 2023. He plans to take on MMA fighter Nate Diaz, first in a boxing match then in MMA. Paul himself is making the transition over, having gone 6-0 with four knockouts in his boxing career. He boxed vs UFC fighters with his biggest win over one-time UFC champ Anderson Silva, albeit with Silva at age 47.

In a side gig to his side gig, Paul also co-founded sports betting site Betr. It started out as a “micro” betting site that lets users wager on small events like the next pitch in a baseball game or a basketball possession using “coins” on the app instead of real money. That changed on January 1st as Betr is a licensed sportsbook in Ohio in partnership with the NFL Hall of Fame Village. Betr customers can wager real money, but can only use it on the same in-game micro bets as they do not post pre-game odds on outcome related events.

Bettors will have many ways to wager on future Jake Paul bouts, as well as all major MMA and boxing matches. Here are the most popular ways to wager on combat sports.

Moneylines

This is the simplest and most popular way to bet on a bout. Just pick the winner, with odds. On January 21st Deiveson Figueiredo will defend his UFC flyweight title vs Brandon Moreno in UFC 283 in Brazil. The moneyline has it as a pretty even matchup with the odds -115 on Figueiredo vs -105 on Moreno. MMA money lines are two-way as draws are rare but they do happen. If a fight does draw, wagers on two-way lines like this just void and funds are returned.

Total Rounds

It is the combat sports version of over/unders. How long will the match last? UFC 283 also features a light heavyweight championship bout between Glover Teixeira and Jamahal Hill. The title is currently vacant. DraftKings has set the Total Rounds at 1.5, with odds -145 on the over and +115 on the under.

The fight is scheduled to go three rounds of five minutes each. If it ends before the 2:30 mark of Round 2, the under players win, otherwise the overs cash their tickets.

Round Betting

Sportsbooks post combo odds on both when the fight ended, and who won the fight. Do not expect to see these until the fight gets close. Round betting markets in Texeira vs Hill could look something like this.

● Texeira to win in Round 1 +700

● Texeira to win in Round 2 +900

● Texeira to win in Round 3 +1200

● Hill to win in Round 1 +575

● Hill to win in Round 2 +800

● Hill to win in Round 3 +1100

Some fights end between rounds. When that happens, the fight officially finishes at the end of the last round completed for betting purposes. For example, if Texeira withdraws between rounds 1 and 2, the “Hill to win in Round 1” bet would win.

Props

Sportsbooks post all manner of props on fights, generally within a few days of the bout. Here are some prop bet markets on the January 7th Gervonta Davis vs Hector Luis Garcia. The moneyline has Davis -1600 vs +800 for Garcia

● Davis by Decision or Technical Decision +350

● Davis by KO/TKO/DQ -400

● Draw +2500

● Garcia by Decision or Technical Decision +1400

● Garcia by KO/TKO/DQ +1800

● Fight ends in TKO -115

● KO +120

● Unanimous Decision +400

● Split Decision +400

● Majority Decision +2500

● DQ +8000

Expect the Super League to have all of these wagers and more. The high profile names they figure to attract will come with big demand for ways to wager on the events. Paul himself bets prominently on matches, often involving his future opponents.