When it comes to listing the most popular sports in the world, golf is definitely among the top five.
The sport is often understated since it’s largely associated with the posh elites. Unlike worldwide classics like soccer and cricket, golf isn’t really a sport you’d see kids on the street playing. Rather, you’d most likely see middle-aged people playing golf in their huge backyards or grounds.
Despite the formal and exclusive nature often associated with the sport, golf has developed its own online sports betting market in recent years. People all across the globe had previously bet on the sport, but in much smaller and more exclusive numbers. Today, the sport has so much to offer sports bettors everywhere that it’d be impossible to ignore it. Take the legendary status of its best players, for example. Even if you’ve never bet on golf or even watched a single match, you’ve likely heard of icons like Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. The former is one of the most popular players in the world, which explains why he has singlehandedly brought so much worldwide attention to the sport. Sports bettors from regions that have previously been unexposed to golf are now joining the online betting market.
If you’re wondering how the supposedly understated game became a sports betting hotspot, keep reading!
How Did Golf Evolve as a Betting Sport?
Golf has been around for centuries. The elite class of 15th century Scotland is to be credited with the invention of golf. The exact origin of the sport is highly debated upon by historians, but that’s not important. What’s important is to take a look at just how quickly golf grew in popularity, even in the old days. Since the elites of the time were close acquaintances of the royals, and the royals were travelers, the sport went wherever they did. According to historians, King Charles I was the one who introduced the game to the English, who then introduced it to the French. Eventually, golf had spread all around Europe, and it wouldn’t be long until sports bettors got a hold of the sport.
It’s hard to say exactly when sports bettors got involved in golf, but easy to assume that it was pretty early on. Sports betting, and gambling in general, was a popular pastime among Europeans at the time golf was gaining global attention. It was only natural for the sport to become just one of the many things that sports bettors wagered on. The golf betting market size never shrunk from the early days until today. In fact, it only increased as more and more people joined the golf betting market. Today, nearly all of the sport’s biggest authorities embrace its legal gambling market. For example, the PGA Tour has recently expressed its support for legalized gambling.
What are the Best Golf Tournaments to Bet on?
Much like every other popular sport, golf has its own highly prestigious tournaments. Every season, these tournaments take the sports betting world by storm. Even though all of the tournaments present highly lucrative betting opportunities, some are naturally more high-caliber than others. Let’s take a look at the biggest golf tournaments that sports bettors should keep an eye out for.
1. The Masters
The Masters, first founded in 1934, is the sport’s single most prestigious tournament. Nobody can deny the importance of the Masters as an event that golfers, spectators, and sports bettors anticipate all year around. The annual event is played at one of golf’s most iconic locations, the Augusta National Golf Club. The latest installment of the tournament garnered more than 9 million real-time viewers, ranking it among the most widely-watched sports events every year.
The 2022 Masters starts on April 4th, so be sure to tune in!
2. The Open Championship
If there’s a tournament that even comes close to the Masters in popularity and value, it’s the Open Championship. This tournament is particularly popular among European golf fans and sports bettors, since it’s mostly played at venues in Europe. You’ll always see the sport’s top players participating in the Open Championship, which gives it legendary status among spectators. The tournament’s popularity also makes it the hotspot for some of the best golf odds you’ll find in online sportsbooks.
The 2022 Open Championship starts on the 14th of July, 2022.
3. The U.S. Open
When it comes to tournaments that American golf fans and sports bettors specifically enjoy, the U.S. Open is hard to miss. This tournament is also held every year and is one of the most valuable golf tournaments, in terms of value. Despite its lack of popularity outside of the US, the sport’s best players still continue to grace the tournament with their skill and expertise.
The 2022 U.S. Open takes place from 16th June to 19th June.
How Can You Bet on Golf?
To the uninitiated, golf may seem like an intimidating sport to bet on. This perception is largely due to the perceived complexity of the sport’s rules. If you’re unfamiliar with how golf works, that might not necessarily impact your ability to win big by betting on the sport. The most important thing for you to know is how to read odds in golf.
Reading Golf Odds
When looking for golf sports odds on the leading online sportsbooks, you’ll most often come across odds that look like this:
Tiger Woods (+800) or Tiger Woods (10/1)
In the first example, the plus sign represents your winnings against a $100 bet. Here, you’ll be earning $800 on a $100 bet if you bet on Tiger Woods and win. There can also be minus signs alongside numbers in a bet. In this example, if there was a minus sign, that’d indicate the amount of money you’d have to win in order to win $100. That means that if you won a bet that had -800 odds for Tiger Woods, then you’d have to bet $800 on him to win $100 in return. Here, your total winnings would be $1,600.
In the second example, the odds are presented in fractions. This shows how much you’ll win against the stake. So, if you win a 10/1 bet, you’ll be earning $10 for every $1 you bet on Tiger Woods.
Choosing Golf Bets
Once you’ve gotten a grasp of golf odds reading, you’ll need to understand the different types of bets you can place, too. A lot of the bets in golf are quite similar to the bets you can place in other popular sports. However, some bets are unique to golf due to the unique rules of the game. Let’s discuss some of the best golf bets you can wager on.
1. Outright Bets
Like in every other sport, there’s always a winner of every golf tournament. You can bet on the outright winner of a golf tournament. Yes, it’s as simple as it sounds! You can simply choose a player you feel confident about, and place a bet on them to win the tournament. You can often find a list of the most promising players in a tournament on the top golf betting sites on the internet.
2. Position Bets
Position bets are most common in races, but they’re also common in golf. Basically, when you place a position bet, you’re wagering on the position in the tournament that a certain player will land on. For example, you bet on Dustin Johnson to finish in the top 5 positions in the U.S. Open. If you win this bet, you’ll get a much smaller payout than you would with an outright winner bet. You can also bet on multiple players if your online sportsbook allows it.
3. Matchup Bets
To make things a little more fun, many betting sites let bettors wager on two specific players going up against one another. These bets are based purely on the head-to-head rivalry between the two players, and have nothing to do with the rest of the tournament/field. You can easily place these bets when your online sportsbook of choice decides to open the room for them. You’ll be wagering on which of the two golfers that have been matched up will fare better than the other.
Tip: watch out for uneven bets that clearly favor one golfer over the other.
4. Futures Bets
This is one type of bet that all sports bettors are somewhat familiar with. As the name suggests, futures bets are contingent upon the future of a golf event. They’re not typically placed on ongoing or even upcoming tournaments. Rather, futures bets are most commonly placed on tournaments that are an extended period of time away. For example, you could bet on the outright winner of the PGA Championship a year in advance. If you win, the payout for these bets is often quite high.
5. Props Bets
Have you ever placed any side bets in a golf tournament? Side bets are essentially prop bets since they’re not based on the actual outcome of a tournament or match itself. These bets, officially called “proposition bets” are placed on the basis of the probability of any kind of non-main event occurring during the match/tournament. For example, you can bet on whether any player will make a hole-in-one during the U.S. Open. Since these bets are general and often quite broad in scope, the payout for them isn’t the highest. They’re good for experimenting with, but not good for golf betting longevity.
How to Find Reliable Golf Betting Sites
Once you’ve gotten a basic understanding of how golf betting works, you can start experimenting with it. It’s important to do that safely, though, since the online betting market is riddled with scam betting sites. Here are some ways you can find good and reliable golf betting sites in your region.
1. Do Extensive Research
The first thing sports bettors do is look for local betting sites on search engines like Google. In doing so, you’ll likely come across a wide range of betting sites that offer golf betting. You can take your time to go through at least five of the top betting sites you can find. Remember, every betting site offers some bonuses for new customers. So, make sure you compare different sites first before you choose one right away!
2. Find a Good Resource Site
If you don’t want to spend hours browsing through search engines and looking for betting site features that way, you can always just find a good resource site instead. Online gambling resource sites like Betting Sites Ranking do all the tedious work for you by reviewing the top betting sites. You can simply go through these reviews and read about the various betting site features and offers. This should give you a good idea of which site to use.
3. Ask Industry Experts
Another good way to find legitimate and reliable sports betting sites is to ask industry experts. A lot of professional and experienced online bettors have their own live blogs where you can contact them. However, if you can’t find ways to directly contact them, you can read blogs by industry experts on sites like Betting Sites Ranking. These blogs are written specifically to help novice bettors learn smart betting strategies, so don’t hesitate to study them!
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