On Monday, Tiger Woods was the most-bet golfer to win the 2020 Masters. That made sense. There’s never been a bigger name in the sport, and Woods won the tournament in 2019.
But as the week moved on, bettors were looking elsewhere.
Woods is still getting plenty of action to win the tournament, which starts Thursday. Woods, whose odds to win have shifted from +4000 to +3300, is getting the second-highest number of bets at BetMGM (there is also a special promo at BetMGM for new users, in which a $1 Masters bet wins $100 if Woods hits a birdie during the tournament).
Woods has been replaced atop that leaderboard by Xander Schauffele, who is often a popular play among golf bettors.
Schauffele, whose odds on Wednesday were +1600, is getting 6.7% of the bets at BetMGM. Woods is second at 5.8%. A $10,000 bet to win $140,000 was made on Schauffele this week.
There’s a different order when the amount of money bet on each golfer is calculated. Bryson DeChambeau has the highest percent of money, meaning most of the bets on him are larger. Of all the money bet on the Masters champion, DeChambeau is getting 14%. Dustin Johnson is second at 13.6%. Johnson is the co-favorite along with Jon Rahm at +1100 and DeChambeau is +1400.
None of those golfers are the biggest liability at BetMGM. Kevin Kissner, at 125-to-1, is the golfer BetMGM is rooting the hardest against. He is the biggest liability, in part because of a $5,000 to win $630,000 on him. That’s the biggest potential payout among all the wagers that BetMGM has taken this week.
A $5,000 to win $200,000 on Woods has the second-largest potential payout.
There are many ways to bet on golf tournaments aside from picking a winner.
If you don’t have the patience for a four-day tournament you can bet on the first-round leader. DeChambeau is the runaway favorite among bettors to be the first-round leader. He has gotten the most bets and also the most money in that market. He has gotten a remarkable 28.9% of the money in the first-round leader market. Nobody else is above 7%.
“The public loves the ease of betting on golf and interest in first-round leader betting speaks to that, we’re seeing a lot of action this year,” said Jason Scott, the vice president of trading at BetMGM. “As with most things Masters this year, Bryson is a popular pick to lead first round with the public.”
There are seemingly endless ways to bet golf. There are head-to-head matchups, betting specific golfers to finish in the top 10, top 20 or top 40, or prop bets like if there will be a hole-in-one during the tournament.
But the most popular way to bet golf is picking a winner (check out Yahoo’s picks and analysis for the Masters), and the most popular pick in that market isn’t Woods anymore.
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