Every single member of the SBC team loves betting on golf. It’s probably fair to say that golf is currently our favourite sport to bet on. That may change in the future as the markets evolve and we adapt to them, but it’s where we stand right now.
But why do we love betting on golf so much?
There are many many reasons, 8 of which we’ve highlighted in this post. We hope by the end of reading it you’ll be just as excited about betting on golf as we are.
1. It is very profitable
The main reason is the most obvious – golf betting is very profitable indeed over the long-term.
This is perfectly showcased by the results that SBC tracks as part of its independent review service.
You can see an overall picture of SBC golf results, plus specific records on the SBC Golf page.
But to give you an idea, betting records for the 3 SBC Golf tipsters up until end of 2021 were as follows:
- Golf Insider – 26.96% ROI from 3069 bets since 2014
- PGA Profit – 31.74% ROI from 1296 bets since 2018
- Weekly Golf Value – 33.46% ROI from 1558 bets since 2019
These results are all over the long term with the 3 specific SBC golf tipsters records going back at least 3 year for every service.
2. It doesn’t take up too much time
One of the great things about betting on golf is that it’s not time intensive. Typically, there are 2 major tours to tackle when betting on golf: the PGA Tour and the European Tour (now named the DP World Tour).
This means that twice a week you’ll be placing your bets for a few hours at a time. It’s not like horse racing where there are multiple events per day, golf is just 2 hours per week. Once your bets are on, tournaments will usually start on a Thursday and finish on a Sunday. So for this period you can sit back and see how your guys get on.
Some tipsters also advise extra in-play bets at the end of each day and of course you can always use the in-play betting element to get any other bets that you might have missed out on before Day 1 began.
3. Big wins, high ROIs
Due to the nature of golf betting markets, the odds on players to win an event are usually quite large: It’s not uncommon for 40/1, 50/1 and above winners.
You can see some of these winners on the SBC Golf page. which demonstrates the potential for long odds selections getting the job done. And with big winners, big return on investments (ROI’s) are not far behind.
Some notable results and records from previous years would be…
- Martin Laird winning in October 2020 at 275/1
- K.H. Lee winning in May 2021 at 175/1
- PGA Profit’s 2021 record of +444.60 points at 51.28% ROI
4. Bookmaker Options
The services we feature and recommend at SBC provide tips that are available at multiple bookmakers or even on betting exchanges like Betfair (see below).
These will range from your ‘blue chip’ bookies down to some of the lesser-known companies.
That means there are great options for placing bets and if you don’t have access to one bookmaker, you’ll likely have access to another that is providing the same value bet.
Bookmakers will also regularly offer plenty of concessions when betting on golf each way. Standard place terms are usually that they will pay out on the first 5 golfers to finish, but bookies will pay out anything from 7 places to 11 places at major tournaments. This is a great way to find value bets when betting on golf.
5. Less Restrictions
In general, our experience is that bookmakers tend to be less sensitive to golf bets when it comes to restricting the size stake bets you can get down.
It’s well known that sometimes even a whiff of a suspicion that you’re a shrewd bettor on the horses and you’ll quickly get stake restricted at the bookies.
This is less common when betting on golf. Clearly it still happens sometimes, and winning accounts will get closed down eventually; but it’s likely your betting account will last longer by betting on this sport than when betting on others.
In a similar vein, some bookies will restrict on a per sport basis. In our experience at SBC, you’re sometimes still able to get money down on golf even if restricted on another sport with the same bookmaker.
Overall, it is our feeling the bookies are less ‘sensitive’ to golf betting profits and will take a lot longer to close or limit your accounts if winning on the sport.
6. Odds Movement
Odds movements in golf markets tend to be a lot slower than other sports such as horse racing.
Again, due to the nature of golf betting, money will trickle in over the few days before the event starts meaning price volatility is lower. This is a good thing for bettors as it means you have more time to get on good value bets.
Using a selection from a tipster as an example, once the tip is sent, it’s likely you will have hours rather than minutes to obtain the advised price.
7. Bet on the Exchange
Betting on golf is very much exchange friendly. While some tipsters require you to bet at bookmakers to take advantage of the extra place payouts, there are plenty of services whose models are not so reliant on extra places and can be used to turn a profit at the exchange.
This blog article gives a great explanation on 2 exchange friendly golf betting tipsters and how their tips are profitable at Betfair Exchange.
To be able to bet profitably at somewhere like Betfair, is perhaps seen as the holy grail of betting as you can free yourself from the shackles of bookmaker account restrictions and closures. The more you can do this the better!
8. Scalable
Finally, golf is certainly a sport that you can grow your bankroll on as the larger than usual ROIs allow you to increase profits as you see fit.
This of course can be true for all sports when making a profit but as the SBC team will testify, there has been some healthy bankroll growth over the last few years when betting on golf.
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We hope this goes some way to explaining why golf is such a great sport to bet on. You can learn about our golf specific products at the SBC Golf page and you can also ask me anything at alex@smartbettingclub.com