he West Coast swing is almost complete. This week, at The Riviera Country Club in stunning Pacific Palisades, the PGA TOUR will make its final stop in California of the season for The Genesis Invitational. Tiger Woods, the event host, is among the 70 players in the field for this Signature Event.
Bookmakers in Las Vegas are anticipating a rise in the golf handle, with NFL football now in the past and one of the major TOUR tournaments scheduled. Sports Betting Hall of Fame bookmaker Nick Bogdanovich stated, “It’s a really strong field, and then of course, Tiger – and the history of the event, those are the main reasons.”
cott Shelton, an oddsmaker at BetMGM Golf in Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, stated: “Yes, I would anticipate a higher handle with Tiger at (Riviera).” I am aware that we wagered $1,500 to win $150,000 on him at +10000.”
Shelton’s observations were confirmed by BetMGM analyst Drew O’Dell, who pointed out that Woods leads in the number of tickets sold in the outright market: “Tiger leads in ticket percentage, at 8%, followed by Justin Thomas (5.75%) and Scottie Scheffler (5.66%).” “Woods, Thomas, and Sahith Theegala are BetMGM’s biggest liabilities in the outright market.”
It is amazing what Woods’s presence in a tournament can do. Tiger will be playing in his first competitive round since December, when he shot even par over the four days at the Hero World Challenge in The Bahamas, finishing 18th out of a field of 20 players. Senior manager at Mandalay Bay Race & Sportsbook Tristan Davis believes Woods won’t win The Genesis Invitational by himself.
Some bettors believe Tiger will place in the top five. Here at +2200, he has some support,” Davis added. The Round 1 Specials at Tiger Woods have garnered some interest. Tiger to make an eagle at +400 and finish the round without a bogey at generous odds of +2000.
“Tiger Woods is by far the biggest liability and not just in winning The Genesis Invitational, but also in making the cut and finishing top 5/10/20,” said Matthew Wall, the trading team lead for golf at BetMGM. Over the weekend, we also anticipate a doubling of the action on Tiger. Someone other than Tiger lifting the trophy on Sunday night is needed for the book.
That’s not very enjoyable, is it? Still, it’s absolutely true. Most gamblers, especially those who wager on famous players, want to see heroics and pyrotechnics. Similar to the Super Bowl, casual bettors in the prop markets typically wager on “yes” and “over,” while the sportsbooks typically support “no” and “under.” The last weekend, sportsbooks prevailed when Travis Kelce
Unbelievably, this week is seeing activity from other players as well, and they are participating in the First Round Leader market.
“After Round 1 on Thursday, Sam Burns is leading the way with nearly 9% of the tickets written on him,” according to O’Dell. “In terms of tickets sold, Emiliano Grillo is in second place with 5.8%, followed by Cameron Young with 5.0%, Beau Hossler with 4.6%, and Adam Svensson with 4.4%.” Tony Finau’s support for First Round Leader at Mandalay Bay at +3300 is clearly visible to Davis.
For the past few weeks, Burns has been playing exceptionally well, finishing in the top ten three times in a row. Grillo is ranked 28th, and he is ranked 18th on the TOUR in Round 1 Scoring Average. Hossler is ranked 53rd in birdie average on the TOUR, while Finau is ranked 13th. In Bogey Avoidance, Svensson ranks 63rd, while Young ranks 42nd.
This week, there is activity in the Top Nationality markets as well. In terms of ticket count, O’Dell surpassed the leaders, and here is another area where Tiger’s name is absent.
“Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Thomas, Max Homa, and Jordan Spieth have the top five tickets for Top American,” stated O’Dell. “Top Australian tickets are sold by Adam Scott, Top European tickets by Ludvig Åberg, and Top Asian tickets by Si Woo Kim.” “Our most heavily bet tournament matchup is Matt Fitzpatrick to beat Tom Kim at -130,” stated Davis at Mandalay Bay on the Full Tournament Head-to-Head Matchups.
itzpatrick is scheduled to participate in The Genesis Invitational for the fourth time. He missed the cut the previous season and placed thirty-ninth and fifth. Kim had only ever played here previously, coming in 45th place the previous year.
Finally, O’Dell mentioned that they had also saw unexpected action on one somewhat esoteric prop—anyone in the field to make an albatross, priced at +1800—to further support our theory that this golf tournament ought to see an increase in handling for a variety of reasons. Yes, heroics and fireworks. We’ll see. Throughout the whole TOUR schedule, this is one of the most difficult golf courses. As a point of reference, UNDER/OVER 15.5 under par was the winning score prop. Out of his 82 career PGA TOUR victories, Woods
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