Betting is in full swing in Las Vegas for the Masters tournament being played at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. In fact, wagering has been taking place throughout the year. MGM Resorts International Vice President of Race and Sports Jay Rood said, “There is no comparison. It’s easily the most heavily bet-on golf tournament of the year.” Because bets can be placed year-round, the total amount wagered on the Masters in Las Vegas will total twice as much as the British open and 20 times more than an average, non-major tournament.
About 30 percent of the total wagers made on the 2019 Masters are coming in now. The total handle is expected to be about half of the amount wagered on the NCAA Final Four. By far, most Masters wagers are placed on an individual player to win the entire tournament. Prop bets and matchups represent about 5 percent of the total handle. “We do a ton of amount of tickets on a lot of futures, and I would say the Masters is probably a little bit higher than most of the other sports like college basketball. We’re not gonna have someone come and bet $60,000 on a golfer, but it’s not all $5 tickets. The average ticket is more like $50 on the Masters. They’ll take a shot on a guy that’s 200-1 or 300-1 for $5 or $10. But if you’re betting Jason Day at 30-1, most people are gonna put around $50,” Rood said. A $50 wager on Day at 30-1 odds would result in a $1,500 profit if he wins.
Tiger Woods’ return to the Masters the past two years has brought an increased in total amount wagered. But Rood said Woods’ impact isn’t as impressive as one would believe. “Golf right now is the strongest it’s ever been from a wagering standpoint, and I believe that would be with or without Tiger. Not a lot of the chatter is necessarily about Tiger coming into the Masters from a wagering perspective. Golf provides such an opportunity to speculate on some really talented individuals and get some really good prices.”
Rood said new this year at MGM will be betting lines to win at the conclusion of each round plus dozens of prop bets. Rood said in-round live betting also may be offered. “I think golf has the most area to grow of all the major sports from where they are currently with betting. A couple things have to happen with the data from the PGA Tour coming into our wagering system. We need to get something that’s a little bit more real time and develops some models around it that can spit out some basic pricing on that,” he said.
