SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
William Hill, the proud sponsors of Martin vs Joshua, have reported a swell of support behind ‘Prince’ Charles Martin to retain his IBF World Heavyweight title at the 02 on Saturday night.
The bookmakers initially made the St Louis native a 5/1 shot to win the bout, but hundreds of bets ranging from £10 to £5000 have resulted in his big fight odds being slashed to 7/2.
On the flip side, Anthony Joshua, the 2012 Olympic Champion, has seen his odds pushed out from 1/8 to 2/9 to claim a maiden world title.
Both fighters have phenomenal knock-out records; Joshua has a flawless 15 KO’s from 15 fights, while Martin has stopped 21 of his 24 opponents. These stats have unsurprisingly lead punters to favour a KO as the most likely outcome of the fight.
The majority of bets on the method of victory (72%) have been on Martin to win by a KO, whilst Joshua is 3/10 to KO Martin and 8/1 to do so in the very first round.
Tony Kenny, Head of Sponsorship for William Hill, said: “Punters are starting to believe that ‘Prince’ Charles has a real chance of beating Anthony Joshua at the 02 on Saturday Night. Although AJ is still certain to remain favourite to take the IBF title, he’ll be a much bigger price than most people predicted.”
