The best week of the year is here! Golf enthusiasts and casual fans will be watching the top golfers play the most beautiful golf course on Earth.
Speculators will have more betting options this week than any other on the golf calendar. I've outlined the most common betting formats below, along with some tips to keep in mind and a few links to related articles we've done on the specific topics.
In a perfect world, investors can build a portfolio of golfers across these different markets, hedging your bets and finding some +EV opportunities along the way.
Good luck!
Traditional Betting
Outright Winners
Outright wagers (also known as futures bets) involve taking a player to win the Masters or to lead after a specific round. Although these bets are very popular and fun, they generally have the most juice. While longshots can have value, you should be very disciplined with your bankroll and volume in this format of betting.
Top 5/10/20 Finishes
One of the most popular ways to go long a golfer is by betting a top-5, top-10 or top-20 finish. If you are bullish on certain players, comparing their outright price vs. DFS price vs. T5/T10/T20 price is an efficient way to find value.
Head-to-Head Matchups
This is one of the most popular bet types. Instead of picking an outright winner, you pick one golfer vs. another golfer. This format has the highest limits at sportsbooks and is a great way to short golfers you're bearish on or back the golfers you like the most.
Daily Fantasy
Daily Fantasy Golf has exploded in popularity over the past couple of years. DraftKings has the premier contest this year with a $4,000,000 prize pool in the Millionaire Maker. Invest $20 and pick the best six-golfer lineup on DraftKings and win $1,000,000!
DFS golf rules per DraftKings:
In salary cap contests, participants will create a lineup by selecting players listed in the Player Pool. Each player listed has an assigned salary and a valid lineup must not exceed the salary cap of $50,000. Contest results will be determined by the total points accumulated by each individual lineup entry.
You can find additional information on the rules here.
If you're completely new to playing DFS golf, I encourage you to check out Justin Bailey's introductory piece.
Calcutta Pools
There are many different formats for Calcutta pools. The basics are as follows:
- Speculators bid auction-style on the golfers or team of golfers they think will do well in the Masters
- Every dollar invested in the auction goes into the pot to create a prize pool
- The organizer of the Calcutta will define payouts based on the results. Payouts vary greatly depending on the format. Some Calcuttas will pay out a small percentage to the high and low round each day. In general the majority of the payout goes to the winner with a sliding scale for the top 5-10 places.
Calcuttas are very entertaining and require a solid understanding of the specific rules of your pool.
I went more in depth into my favorite Calcutta strategies here.
One-and-Done Pools
One-and-done pools work exactly how they sound: You pick one golfer for each tournament of the season, and you can only use that golfer once for the entire season. The handicapper who picks the players who earn the most prize money in the given season wins the contest.
The Masters is just one piece of the one-and-done puzzle, but it's an important one, as it has one of the biggest purses in golf and some pools pay out for the best performances at the majors.
