The Three Weirdest Betting Headlines From 2020

• Presidential election betting has lasted far longer than one would expect.
• The UFC returned after two months off to enormous revenue.
• Intelligent Alien Life has +1400 odds of being discovered before 2022.

LAS VEGAS - 2020 has been a weird year for everyone. From the global pandemic to the presidential election, the year has been unlike any other.

In this yearly recap, USAOnlineSportsbooks will go over some of the craziest, weirdest and most out there betting headlines of the year.

Donald Trump Uses Bookies To Complain About Election

Famously, betting on elections is not something that any sportsbook in America is allowed to offer.

Thus, it was something of a surprise when US President Donald Trump used the implied odds on sportsbooks to justify his complaints about election integrity.

At 10:00 P.M. on Election Evening, we were at 97% win with the so-called “bookies”.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2020

It was, perhaps, less of a surprise to note that his complaint wasn’t true - he was never anywhere near 97% implied odds.

What he was referring to was a big swing towards him as election night resulted in a closer matchup than before.

This made bettors think that 2016 was happening again - and it nearly did.

This rush of money towards Trump was also indicative of the relationship that his strongest emotional backers have towards the reality of the election results - a tenuous one.

For example, BetFair recently finally took their odds on the Presidential Election down, and received an outpouring of abuse from Trump backers who thought he would find some way to overturn the election.

In fact, there are currently plans to sue Betfair for, from the Trump supporter perspective, calling the election too early.

PredictIt, a book that specializes in election wagering, is actually still letting people wager on the election, which is truly incredible.

The Return Of The UFC Generates Enormous Revenue

The UFC was one of the first major sports to return after the period in which almost every major sport paused play to figure out COVID strategies.

The UFC had a markedly easier job than the NBA or the NFL, in that there were less people required to put on an event.

Per The Action Network , DraftKings’ Stephen Miraglia noted that “UFC 249 is officially the most-bet MMA event in DraftKings Sportsbook history — and the main card hasn’t even started yet.”

UFC 249 did blockbuster numbers at the sportsbooks, which is interesting in the context of the general sports viewership trends as sports returned.

The NBA and NHL, for example, saw substantial decreases in viewership with their out-of-sync bubble seasons.

Sports bettors, it seems, had been waiting for any chance to bet on UFC... or something for that major.

Intelligent Alien Life - Only Slightly Less Likely Than LSU Beating Alabama

Online sportsbook Bovada released odds on whether or not intelligent alien life would be discovered by the end of 2021.

Intelligent Alien Life Discovered By End Of 2021

• Yes +1400
• No -10000

Obviously, No was a pretty big favorite, but the odds for Yes were shockingly paltry. As a comparison point, the same week, Alabama played LSUx, and the odds looked like this:

Alabama vs. LSU

• Alabama -4100
• LSU +1225

These are basically in the same ballpark with the big difference is that the favorite, No, has far more prohibitive odds than Alabama did against LSU.

Another easy comparison would be the NFL futures odds back in Week 1.

In Week 1, the Seattle Seahawks had +1400 odds to win the Super Bowl - putting them on par with the chance of intelligent alien life being discovered.

Perhaps this is not the best news for Seattle fans, although there exists the remote possibility that Russell Wilson is, in fact, from Mars.

It’s certainly been a crazy year, so sound off in the comments with your craziest sports betting stories of 2020!

Happy Holidays!