A Complete Guide to the Best New Golf Betting Sites

Golf is often overlooked by sports fans, but it’s undoubtedly one of the biggest sports in the world, with an enormous global following. Unsurprisingly, many people also love to bet on golf, although with such fine margins, picking pre-tournament winners can be challenging. However, this also means you could get an awful lot of value from these markets, especially on new golf betting sites.

In this guide to new golf betting sites in the UK, we’ll explore exactly what you should look for when picking a new online sports bookmaker. In the following sections, we’ll cover golf betting offers, markets and odds, the best tournaments to bet on, as well as other things to consider like live golf betting.

How to Find the Right Betting Sites

Virtually every sports betting site you come across will offer betting markets on golf – it’s simply too big a sport to miss out, regardless of what country you’re in.

Unlike other major betting markets like football, where there are around a hundred betting markets available on every single match – let alone competition – the number of golf betting markets is comparatively small. This is because of the limited number of actions that take place at each event.

Most golf betting markets revolve around how players will place in the tournament, winning margins, handicaps and how many shots will be taken. You can also bet on things like the nationality of the winner or even how many tournaments a player will win in a year. But, on the whole, golf markets are based on the outcome of the entire event.

Golf Betting Offers

While golf is a popular online betting market, most bookmakers don’t offer a great deal of golf-specific bonuses or promotions – aside from perhaps during the The Masters or The Open, when they might pop up with something.

Most sports betting offers are either generic or more football or horse racing-related. However, you can use the generic sports bets on golf markets – especially welcome bonuses.

One of the best welcome bonuses around is NetBet’s £50 free matched bet bonus – so the site will give you a free bet to the same value as your first bet on the site, up to the value of £50. This can be useful for any number of golf bets.

Golf Betting Markets

Most golf betting markets are centred around tournament betting, either on the winner or the position of certain players. Players can also bet on handicaps and winning markets and so on, but golf is one of the most restricted markets in terms of what people can bet on.

Players with a good knowledge of golf can generally find a great deal of value when betting, though, as golf is one of the least predictable sports around in some sense. This often means that if there are one or two under-priced favourites, the rest of the “outsiders” will be very generously priced. Often the winners of major golf tournaments are priced over 10/1 – which is simply unheard of in other sports.

How to Cross-check the Best Golf Odds

As odds can vary so wildly, it’s especially important to compare golf odds in order to get maximise your value – especially when most selections are at relatively long odds.

Ahead of the 2019 US Open, for example Rory McIlroy is as short as 10/1 to win at some bookmakers and up to 16/1 at others. For a £10 bet, this could mean you get a return of £110 or £170 – a significant difference. And this gets more extreme the further down the field you go. At the same event, Lee Westwood’s odds range from 80/1 to 125/1 – meaning a return of £810 at one bookmaker, but a massive £1260 at another – for what is exactly the same bet.

The Variety of Golf Bet Options

When it comes to variety, golf is admittedly not the most colourful of betting markets, although it is possible to bet on player head-to-heads at certain bookies.

Undoubtedly one of the most popular markets for golf fans is the top 10 and top 20 finish, with players often looking for long-shot outsiders that may have a good run. This is due to the fine-line nature of golf, you quite regularly get some surprise names (boasting big odds) finishing in the upper reaches of a tournament.

In-Play Betting and Live Streaming

In-play betting has proven to be exceptionally popular for golf, largely because this gives punters the chance to watch the players in the early holes and get an indication of whether they are having a good or bad day.

What’s more, if a player is playing well but has been a little unlucky, it may be a good idea to back this player as their odds slide during the action. For this and many other reasons, golf live betting has proven to be a hugely popular innovation in recent years.

Betting fans can also watch live golf streams with certain bookmakers either on their tablet, phone or computer – this is also a great way to keep an eye on the action when you’re on the go.

Why is Golf a Popular Market in the UK?

Golf is a hugely popular betting market in the UK, largely because of the country’s strong connection to the sport. It is widely agreed what we call ‘modern golf’ originated in Scotland in the middle ages, with golf still hugely popular with the Scottish still boasting some of the best golf courses in the world – including, of course, St Andrew’s.

Golf courses can be found across the UK and it remains a popular pastime for many people, with hundreds of thousands of people descending upon the UK Open each year.

The Biggest Competitions in Golf

Golf tournaments take place throughout the year, but most popular events for fans are the four majors: The Masters, The US Open, The Open Championship and the PGA Championship. To no surprise, the best golf betting sites have these events in their selection. In the following sections, we’ll take a deeper look at these big golf competitions.

The Masters

The Masters, which takes place in the US state of Georgia every year, is the first of four major championships in professional golf each year. It was established in 1934 and is played at the Augusta National Golf Club. Here you’ll find a host of golf betting sites offering special bonuses and promotions.

Jack Nicklaus is the most successful player at the tournament, having won six Masters titles, the oldest of which was at 46 years of age – making him the oldest ever winner of the tournament.

The US Open

The next major each year is the US Open, which takes place at different courses around the US, with play commencing each June. Americans have dominated the list of Champions, having won consecutive titles between 2015 and 2018.

The tournament is part of the PGA Tour, European Tour and Japan Golf Tour.

The Open Championship

Similarly to The US Open, The Open Championship changes location each year, taking in the best golf courses Britain has to offer. It is the oldest golf major having been established in 1860.

The Open traditional takes place in mid-July, but this will be switched from 2019 to take place in May – and represent the final major of the golf season. No player has secured back-to-back titles at The Open since Padraig Harrington in 2008.

PGA Championship

The last of the four major’s is the PGA Championship, offering a prize fund of around $11 million to players. Like The Open, the PGA Championship is being rescheduled from 2019, taking place on the weekend before Memorial Day in May, having traditionally been played in mid-August. Winners of the PGA Championship are automatically invited to play in all four majors for the next five years.

The Tour Championship

The Tour Championship is an end of year tournament between the top 30 players from that year’s PGA tour. It has grown into a massive event, even matching the purse of the majors.

Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup is the biggest “team” competition in golf, taking place biannually as a team from Europe competes against a team from America, with teams selected by the captain from each team. The host alternates between Europe and the States, with both sets of players desperate to take the bragging rights. It was first established in 1927. Until 1977, the tournament was actually between America and the UK and Ireland, but since 1979 the UK team became Europe as a whole. As of 2016, the US had won 26 of the 41 matches, losing 13 and tying twice. Here you’re guaranteed to find a variety of offers from the best golf betting sites, throughout the tournament.

The History of Betting on Golf

Golf is a sport with hundreds of years of history, with a traditionally wealthy player base – resulting in the fact that friendly wagers between players were a common occurrence throughout the history of the sport.

As a spectator sport, golf has really come into its own with the introduction of TV and then the internet – both of which have greatly accelerated the popularity of golf betting. Nowadays people bet on golf tournaments across the world and watch the action from wherever they are. This has also continued to grow with the addition of in-play golf betting.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a stand-out performer from the new golf betting sites available, check out NetBet, who offer a vast range of golf betting markets, as well as a very generous £50 matched free bet when you first sign up. Remember too, it’s very important to compare golf odds before betting, as prices can vary massively between online bookmakers. Looking for more betting sites to choose from? Check out our list of the best new betting sites available to UK punters.

Although the range of golf betting markets is comparatively small to other major sports such as football, there’s no doubt that golf is one of the best sports for finding big odds winners.