There are two primary types of golf betting when it comes to major tournaments: line bets and spread bets. Line bets refer to a simple “who will win outright” bet, with bookmakers providing different odds for different players. In order to win a bet, the player upon which a gambler places his bet must win the given tournament. In other sports, there are typically only two teams competing, so they are divided into an underdog and a favourite. However, with golf, there can be roughly twenty competitors in a single event, so a ranking system is implemented. Golfers that have performed well in the past or that know the course well are given better odds to win a tournament. Line golf betting ranking systems look something like this:
Doe: -250
Smith: -150
Adams: 150
Johnson: 200 etc.
In this example, if you wanted to bet on Doe winning the tournament, you would have to bet 250 dollars in order to win 100 dollars. If you bet on Smith, you would bet 150 dollars to win 100 dollars. If you were to bet on Adams, betting 100 would win you 150, and 100 dollars bet on Johnson would win 200. If any player other than the one you bet on wins the tournament, your bet is lost.
Some bookmakers also offer a spread golf betting system, which uses a slightly different system than spread betting in other sports. In, say, basketball, spread bets are placed based on how many points bookmakers think a given team will win by. In golf betting, spread bets are used to try and guess which position a given player will end up in. Bookmakers estimate the finishing position of a given player, and those betting on the spreads try to guess whether the player will end up above or below the stated position.
For example, suppose a bookmaker gives Smith an estimated finishing position of 4.5 out of twenty. The decimal point is used in order to indicate that bets are either fourth or better, or fifth or worse. Gamblers then try to guess whether Smith will finish in fourth place or above, or in fifth place or below. Bookmakers design the estimates so that the odds are roughly even (in their opinion) as to whether the player will finish above or below the estimated position. Playing golf spreads tends to give better odds but lower payouts than money lines. Which type of golf betting you prefer depends on how much money you want to risk, as well as whether you have a favourite player or not. Simply choose the type of golf betting that best suits you and go online to visit a golf betting site and get started.
