Bookmakers were undoubtedly fixated on Tiger Woods on Thursday, as he shot a spectacular 1-under 71 during the first round at the Masters.
Faced with the huge liability — Woods having been bet more on tickets and dollars than any other golfer by double the margin at every sportsbook — the managing of the live odds was a careful game that each book had to play.
After Tiger’s round, sportsbooks were relatively mum on the total liability they were facing, having added more live money on Tiger to the kitty. The blow-by-blow movement of the live lines told the story.
“Significant amount of live action,” BetMGM’s Elisa Richardson said. “Six figures.”
Caesars spokesman Bradley Harwood said that Woods led in live betting. More than 17% of bets made, as Tiger was playing on Thursday, were on him.
Woods began the day at between 40-1 and 50-1, depending on where you looked. But when Woods made par on the first hole, PointsBet moved him down to a market short position of 33-1.
It was an interesting move for the book, who all week stayed long on Tiger, as if to say, “We’ll take all your money.” PointsBet moved Tiger from 80-1 to 70-1, to 60-1, to 50-1, to 40-1 and eventually to 33-1.
The first big move came when Woods birdied 6 to go to 1-under. PointsBet moved to 25-1, FanDuel to 27-1, BetMGM to 28-1 and DraftKings seemingly wanted to take the money, offering 30-1.
Things stayed relatively steady until Woods finished his round, and that’s when DraftKings continued to offer the longest odds of the major sites. DraftKings offered 45-1 as Tiger finished, while PointsBet, BetMGM and FanDuel offered 33-1.
That didn’t last long as word circulated about Tiger’s round.
By 5 p.m. ET, PointsBet had dropped down to 28-1, FanDuel to 29-1, BetMGM to 33- and DraftKings to 40-1.
Tiger’s path to winning will not be easy, and who knows how all the walking will affect him, but one thing is for sure, the people who thought the sportsbooks were going to clean up early were wrong.
