Market Update – Unibet sees strong ‘Big Fight’ wagering as Joshua seeks to become the headline act of boxing

Bookmaker Unibet has informed SBC, that it is recording strong trading for April 29’s Heavyweight World Championship boxing clash between Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko.

Issuing a trading update, Anthony Cousins’ Head of Sportsbook for Unibet & Kindred Group details that thus far 72% of the wagers have been placed on Joshua, 2% Draw and 26% on Klitschko.

However, Cousins details that in this ’50-50’ bout, Unibet has seen a significant amount of wagers placed on a Klitschko points victory. Joshua, who holds a record of 18 fights / 18 Knockouts leads the market  for a ‘KO victory’.

At present, Unibet predicts that Joshua vs Klitschko, will comfortably break the British wagering record for a boxing match.

However, the bookmaker’s record boxing turnover remains 2015’s Mayweather v Pacquiao fight which Unibet states traded 8-times more turnover than the 2nd and 3rd biggest fights the bookmaker has recorded, between Wladmir Klitschko vs Tyson Fury and Wldmir Klitschko vs David Haye.

Unibet notes that a victory for Joshua, could turn the Watford heavyweight into a global box office draw. Joshua is already 7/2 to be crowned Sports Personality of the Year 2017 which the bookmaker details is a display of how much the athlete’s stature has grown in a short space of time.

Unibet trading team commented on the market: “We opened with 1.44 on Joshua and have not had to adjust the prices yet in what appears to be a very solid market. You can make arguments for both fighters and the live market on the night is the one where we expect most volatility.”

“There are question marks over both fighters – Klitschko is now 41 and not fought since his loss in 2015 but has years of experience on his side. 3 of his last 5 fights went the distance and that is not new territory for him.”

” The youth, strength and agility of Joshua are not in dispute, but he has only fought in 5 sanctioned 12 round fights and 3 of them were ended before round 3. Joshua has never gone to points, or further then round 7 – it will be interesting to see if Klitschko can draw him into a long battle into the unknown.”