An event telecast first

The PGA Tour is integrating live betting odds into a tournament telecast for the first time ever this week. BetMGM will provide the live odds for the CJ Cup, hosted by Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas, Nevada October 15-18.

The Golf Channel’s live event coverage will cover all four rounds. The telecast executions from BetMGM will appear twice every hour, showcasing leaderboards that display “open” and “current” event winning odds for each of the players. 

Other featured odds will include those for top finishes, head-to-heads, winning margin, playoffs, holes-in-one, and wire-to-wire winner. The PGA Tour tweeted out details about the upcoming telecast on Monday:

PGA Tour senior vice president of media and gaming Norb Gambuzza spoke about how the Tour is looking to use betting partnerships to engage the fan base in new and creative ways.

He said: “As an element of that strategy, we began integrating live odds onto TOUR digital platforms in August and now we look forward to learning from this first-time test in a live telecast.”

Relationship with BetMGM

BetMGM signed a multi-year deal in August to become an official betting operator of the PGA Tour. The Tour’s events are some of the sportsbook’s most popular betting offerings, with many different types of golf markets available.  

we look forward to continuing to move the needle”

The operator’s chief marketing officer Matt Prevost highlighted BetMGM’s innovative partnership with the PGA Tour, saying: “We look forward to continuing to move the needle and work closely with the TOUR to produce great content.”

Currently, BetMGM offers sports betting in seven states: West Virginia, New Jersey, Nevada, Mississippi, Michigan, Indiana, and Colorado. It also plans to have live sportsbooks in four more states before the end of the year.

PGA Tour embracing betting

Ever since the US Supreme Court voted to end the federal ban on sports betting in May 2018, the PGA Tour has embraced the sector. As well as its official betting partnership with BetMGM, the Tour also has similar deals in place with FanDuel, DraftKings, and PointsBet. 

The PGA Tour licenses and distributes live scoring data to sportsbooks across the world through a partnership with IMG Arena.

The Tour launched the GolfBet content platform alongside the Action Network in March 2020. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan also plans to introduce on-site betting at tournaments in the future.