The Ultimate Fighting Championship's (UFC) Executive Vice President and COO Lawrence Epstein is publicly supporting the expansion of legalized sports betting in the United States.

Epstein told Espn.go last Thursday that with proper regulation, expanded legalized sports betting in the U.S. would benefit all sports. Not just mixed martial arts (MMA).

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He commented that regulated betting would only serve to enhance the game as opposed to hurting it. This would encourage the fans and give them more confidence that the fights are not rigged in any way.

Epstein is joined by National Basketball Association (NBA) Commissioned Adam Silver, who also endorsed regulated betting in order to ensure that the competition of sports is "pure."

The current betting landscape is pretty rocky.

The major sporting leagues - NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB - are now suing New Jersey to prevent the state's racetracks and casinos from offering legalized sports betting. The leagues claimed that they would receive irreparable damage if betting were allowed there.

A temporary restraining order was filed in favor of the sporting league. However, the peculiar thing was that the restraining order spread to sports that were not part of the major sporting leagues.

This opened the eyes of several legal experts.

"How can the NBA, NFL, Major League Baseball or hockey claim irreparable harm from bets being made on soccer? They can't," Daniel Wallach, a gaming and sports law attorney with Becker & Poliakoff, said.

"The leagues might win on the merits following summary judgment or a trial, but they can't get a preliminary injunction to ban New Jersey from taking action on boxing, MMA and soccer."

It seems the views on betting are currently split at the moment.

However, CEO of William Hill US in Nevada, Joe Asher, says that legalized sports betting in New Jersey is inevitable and is a matter of when, not if.

TagsUFC, Lawrence Epstein, legalized sports betting, Adam Silver