Odds to Win
The odds to win or betting to win wager in Golf is the easiest and by far the most popular type of bet. The sports book oddsmaker will give the bettor money line odds on specific golfers to win a tournament or event, as well as odds on “the field”, which is an opportunity to wager on a collection of the golfers not given individual odds.
Example:
Odds for British Open:
Tiger Woods 1/1
Phil Mickelson 4/1
Fred Funk 14/1
David Duval 50/1
The Field (Any other golfer) 6/1
Albert doesn’t think any of the golfers listed will win the British Open. So, he makes a wager on “The Field” at 6/1 odds to win. For every $100 he bets, he’ll win $600 if a golfer from “The Field” wins the tournament.
Golfer Matchups
In a golfer matchup or head to head wager, the oddsmaker takes two golfers in a tournament or event and pairs them against each other. Sports books offer money line odds with one golfer being listed as the favorite and the other being listed as the underdog. In order to win a golfer matchup bet the golfer you select must finish the tournament or event ahead of the other golfer listed in the matchup.
Example:
Chad Campbell -130
Boo Weekly +120
In the above golfer matchup Chad Campbell has been paired with Boo Weekly and Weekly has been listed as the underdog and Campbell as the favorite.
Jake loves Chad Campbell in this matchup over Boo Weekly. So, if Jake was to place a wager on Chad Campbell -130 he would need to risk $130 for every $100 he would like to win. If Chad Campbell finished at least one position higher than Weekly at the end of the tournament, Jake would win his golfer matchup bet.
Group Matchup Betting
The group matchup betting wager is similar to golfer matchup betting, but instead of just a single head to head matchup, the sports book oddsmaker creates a matchup pool consisting of three or more golfers. The bettor then wagers on which golfer out of the pool he or she believes will win. Group matchup bets offer a higher payout than standard golfer matchup bets because the golfer you select must finish higher than all other golfers in the pool.
Example:
Tiger Woods +100
Phil Mickelson +150
Jim Furyk +170
In the above example there are 3 golfers listed in the group matchup betting pool. If Michelle wanted to bet $100 on Jim Furyk to win this group, Furyk would need to finish ahead of both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. If Furyk was able to do that, Michelle would be paid $170 for her $100 bet.
Future Bet
A future bet is a bet made on an event which will happen sometime in the future. The oddsmaker will create odds for future events and a bettor can wager on how he or she thinks those scenarios will play out.
Example:
How many Majors will Tiger Woods win this season?
0 – 10/1
1 – 7/1
2 – 5/1
3 – 15/1
4 – 25/1
Matt believes Tiger is going to have a monster year and win four majors. So he places a future bet on “4 Major Tournament Wins”. If Tiger does win four Majors in 2008 Matt will win $2500 for every $100 he bet.