US bettors favor PGA Tour

A golf oddsmaking expert has told Gaming Today that the US betting handle his sportsbook took in for the PGA Tour’s Canadian Open the second week of June was seven times higher than what it wrote for the LIV Golf Invitational event in the UK that same week.  

On Wednesday via a text to GT, Westgate SuperBook vice president of risk management Jeff Sherman shared news about the significantly superior handle his firm made on the PGA Tour. Sherman’s disclosure comes at a good time for the PGA Tour, who via a Wednesday press conference shared on Twitter, said it couldn’t compete with the billions of dollars LIV had up its sleeve.

In a recent interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Westgate SuperBook golf handicapper compared the PGA Tour to the NFL. “No matter what we put up — props, top five, top 20, matchups — there’s a very good handle on that,” Sherman said. “Any other tour we do is like the USFL. It pales in comparison.”

Sherman added, however, that getting high-profile, major-winning golfers on the LIV tour, such as recent convert Brooks Koepka, could shake things up.

Sherman said that while he believed LIV Golf could become the “second-most bet tour we offer” there would still be a large gulf between it and the PGA Tour.

11th-hour odds

With most major winners yet to make the LIV move, sportsbooks like Superbook and DraftKings are holding off posting odds for the next LIV event until the organizers’ announce the tournament field, according to GT.

Sherman said he’s waiting until the LIV announces players for the LIV Golf Invitational Portland taking place at Pumpkin Ridge next week before he posts SuperBook’s odds.

DraftKings’ director of race & sportsbook operations Johnny Avello concurred, saying that LIV odds for Portland will probably go live Monday in states such as Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Oregon, and Wyoming.

Some sportsbooks, such as Circa Sports, won’t be offering LIV odds for Portland at all.

Call of the green

The betting handle superiority of the PGA Tour offers some solace in the face of the $600bn Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund-backed golf juggernaut.

A genuine threat to the PGA Tour, the LIV has already tempted a handful of the world’s best golfers to cross the divide. As VegasSlotsOnline News reported earlier this month, the lure of big signing bonuses and massive payouts is mighty attractive option for golfers to dramatically increase their net worth.

For now at least, LIV remains eclipsed by the PGA Tour in terms of US betting handle. Another factor that works in favor of the PGA Tour is that LIV does not have a US television deal, which means viewers have to go online to watch Mickelson et al. in action.

if they have trouble finding where to watch it, that will be a deterrent”

“People will bet on anything they can watch, and if they have trouble finding where to watch it, that will be a deterrent for the betting handle,” Sherman said.