On Saturday night (21 December), Oleksandr Usyk cemented his place among the all-time heavyweight greats with a unanimous decision victory over Tyson Fury in an evenly-contested rematch.

Ahead of the fight, Joe Streeter was joined on iGaming Daily by Jonathan Smith, Founder of Sportsbook Training Systems, to preview the fight and also talk about the intricacies of offering odds for boxing contests.

In recent times, the popularity of bet builders has grown significantly, and Smith explained that the feature is also being developed for boxing.

He said: “You’ve obviously got fight winner but you’ve also got a particular round, which is usually a big price, you’ve got knockdowns, everyone likes to see knockdowns in the same way that they do goals and corners and so forth, and points deductions is another thing.”

“Crucially, if you can get hold of data, you’ve got punch statistics, total punches thrown, landed, jabs power punches, it’s all there and there are any number of combinations. You can build your own story as a punter and decide what you think will happen.”

During the episode, the duo also discussed the growing influence of Saudi Arabia in boxing.

Over the past year, the country has hosted or put its name to almost all of the biggest fights made, including the first Usyk vs Fury clash and the recent fight between the pound-for-pound kings Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev.

The oil-rich nation has once again brought the “fights we want to see”, according to Smith, who added that previously boxing suffered from a period where the top fighters were unwilling to fight each other.

Additionally, fights in Saudi Arabia take place at a time more suitable for a British audience compared to those that take place in the US which has also had a positive impact for bookmakers.

“Those really big [US] fights, they would always be at 3am or 4am and it wasn’t good for turnover. Now we’re talking about a 10.30 pm ring walk, ” said Smith.

“In actual fact, even on the UK cards, they’re bringing [the fights] forward because they know that they need to find that perfect pinch point where people are ready on a Friday or Saturday night to sit down and watch a good fight.”