UFC Announces Enhanced Measures to Prohibit Fighters from Placing Bets on Bouts
September 6, 2023
The UFC announced Wednesday it has partnered with ProhiBet to tighten its oversight of betting within the company.
"One of the foundations of UFC's success is our dedication to embracing regulation and compliance to promote safety and fairness in our sport," UFC general counsel Riché T. McKnight said. "Our collaboration with ProhiBet is another step towards strengthening our integrity controls by helping us to enforce our anti-gambling policy and support the integrity of our sport."
UFC said ProhiBet utilizes "an encrypted decentralized cross-monitoring and notification platform" to identify when any of its fighters, coaches or officials attempt to bet on a fight.
Last October, the UFC sent a memo to fighters and trainers to explicitly state they were banned from betting on company events, even ones in which they had no direct involvement.
Ariel Helwani @arielhelwaniUFC just issued this memo to fighters and managers regarding a change in their athlete conduct policy:<br><br>UFC fighters are now prohibited from gambling on any UFC fight, regardless of if they are involved or not. They can still be sponsored just not allowed to bet at all. <a href="https://t.co/6zhuIITxmx">pic.twitter.com/6zhuIITxmx</a>
The company then said in January it struck a deal with U.S. Integrity to "strengthen its current integrity controls by adding expertise in data intelligence and fraud prevention." Along with that, the UFC Athlete Conduct Policy was amended to outline the gambling rules and associated discipline.
These efforts largely stem from Shayilan Nuerdanbieke's first-round victory over Darrick Minner last November. ESPN's David Purdum and Marc Raimondi reported a day after the fight that it had been flagged because "several sportsbooks in multiple states reported suspicious wagering."
"The odds on Nuerdanbieke defeating underdog Minner moved dramatically in the hours leading up to their UFC Fight Night matchup in Las Vegas," the report said. "Bettors were convinced that not only would Nuerdanbieke win, but he would do so in the first round."
Purdum and Raimondi followed up in December to report the FBI was even "collecting information and has spoken to people regarding the Minner vs. Nuerdanbieke fight."
That same month, the UFC announced it had suspended Minner's coach, James Krause, indefinitely. Krause previously said he bet on UFC fights when it was still permitted by the company, and Purdum reported in January the 37-year-old had served as an "agent" for ABCBetting.ag, a bookmaker based out of Antigua and Barbuda.
Minner and Jeff Molina, whom Krause has also coached, also received suspensions from the Nevada Athletic Commission amid the ongoing investigation.