If you want to learn everything about golf betting, then this article has everything you need. From information on which are the best golf betting sites, to tips on how to bet on the sport, our expert guide explains all. So read on and enjoy our comprehensive golf betting article.
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- Golf streaming
Bet £10 & Get £30 in Free Bets for new customers at bet365
Bet £10 & Get £30 in Free Bets for new customers at bet365
- Golf betting specialists
- Huge selection of golf betting markets
- Very competitive golf betting odds
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Bet £5 Get £20 in Free Bets
- Huge range of live golf betting markets
- A lot of experience offering golf betting
- Easily accessible via mobile
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Bet £10 on Horse Racing, Get £5 in Free Bets
- Extra places paid out on in golf tournaments
- Fantastic range of bonuses
- Regular golf betting tips on news site
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- Great value golf odds
- Early pay outs on big events
- Cash out your in-play bets
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Bet £5, Get £20 in Free Bets
- Leading golf odds
- Make back and lay bets on their exchange
- Huge number of golf markets
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Get £20 in Free Bets When You Bet £5
- Leading bookie for live golf betting
- Generous free bet welcome offer
- Extra places for golf majors
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Bet £10, Get £30 In Free Bets
- Often have the best golf prices
- Regular golf specials
- Easy to use sportsbook on desktop & mobile
Best Betting Sites UK For Golf Betting
In our opinion, these are the ten best sites for golf betting in the UK in 2024.
- Bet365 – Golf betting specialists
- Ladbrokes – Live stream golf while you bet
- Betfred – The Bonus King delivers on golf
- Betfair – Make back and lay bets on their exchange
- Coral – Extra places for golf majors
- 888Sport – Often have the best golf prices
Best Golf Betting Sites Reviewed
In this section we’re going to go into some detail regarding the the best betting sites for golf. We’ve picked our five favourite sites for golf betting and are going to reveal what makes them so good. These are some of the biggest names in UK betting, so you can be sure that your money is in safe hands at these established firms
1. Bet365
Golf has always played a major part in the Bet365 offering. Their rise to becoming the world’s biggest online bookmaker, has been built upon a range of original ideas and promotions, of which many were borne from their golf coverage.
Compared to other bookmakers, there is real depth to the way that Bet365 cover golf. They have a huge range of markets, that most other firms cannot compete with, featuring an unrivalled array of markets that go in-play. A lovely touch is the scoreboard to the right of the markets, from where you can click on every individual hole on the golf course and check on the progress of your picks and the past shots that were played on the hole.
What We Like
- Unrivalled depth for golf markets
- Innovative golf coverage
- Great live streaming service
- Extra place specials for majors
What We Don’t Like
- Dark grey backdrop is not easy on the eyes
3. Ladbrokes
Ladbrokes are another well-known and trusted name amongst UK punters. Founded way back in 1886, Ladbrokes have also moved admirably with the times and their large market share allows them to operate very generously when it comes to bonuses for their customers. There are regular free £1 bets, which are great for a sport like golf where you can take a chance on a player at high odds, along with daily odds boosts and acca boosts.
The Ladbrokes golf betting service is very good. Everything is covered and Ladbrokes provide in-play coverage, with live streaming available. Ladbrokes have one of the slickest websites around, that is a pleasure to use. The mobile apps are every bit as responsive.
What We Like
- Website is a pleasure to use
- Slick golf streaming available
- Daily odds and acca boosts
- Free £1 bets are great for golf
What We Don’t Like
- Too many ads for their casino on website
3. Betfred
Founded by the eponymous Fred Done in 1967, Betfred have gone from a single shop in Salford to become a huge company with a global presence. Betfred are famed for often paying out early on bets, before the event in question even has a winner. It’s a clever ploy that earns them huge amounts of media coverage, establishing Betfred as a punter-friendly company that can be trusted. It also means that there’s a chance that your golf bet will be paid out even if your pick doesn’t turn out to be the ultimate victor.
Betfred golf betting coverage is comprehensive. Everything’s covered and with Betfred offering some of the best prices in the industry, you know that the odds will always be competitive. With in-play betting and a cash out option, Betfred are a great option for golf. Known as ‘The Bonus King’, you’ll also never be far away from a free bet or promotion at Betfred.
What We Like
- Known as ‘The Bonus King’ for a reason
- Great value golf odds
- Early pay outs on big events
- Cash out your in-play bets
What We Don’t Like
- Golf section is somewhat hidden away on menu system
Online Golf Betting
You may be wondering what was the criteria that we used to rank the best golf betting sites. In this section we break down the key elements where we expect online bookmakers to deliver and highlight those that do best in each discipline.
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Bonuses And Promotions
There are some very generous sign-up offers available from golf betting sites. In addition, online bookmakers look to reward loyalty and keep your custom, by offering a string of additional free bets and bonuses. Bet365 provide regular in-play bet boosts for golf, to give you even more value.
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Ease Of Use
A bookmaker can have the best odds and a huge range of markets, but if their website isn’t up to scratch, you’re not going to keep using them. Ideally you want a clear and crisp layout, where everything is intuitive and the text easy to read. Ladbrokes stand out as one of the golf betting sites with the best designs.
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Best Odds
It stands to reason that anyone looking to bet on golf will want good odds. The good news for punters is that golf betting sites compete against one another to give the best value prices for certain players. So shop around and you can normally find a bookmaker giving bigger odds than their competitors. We think that Betfred are great at giving that little bit of extra value for the favourites in golf markets.
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Mobile Betting
These days bettors do not expect to have to be sitting at their home computers to place a bet on golf. The rise in mobile betting has seen every major online bookmaker develop their own apps and made their websites responsive for mobile devices. With golf tournaments taking place over four days, being able to respond and bet on the move is vital. We believe that Betfair has a great mobile betting app.
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Depth Of Markets
Every betting company will have some odds up for the major golfing events each week, but some will go above and beyond in their coverage. The golf betting sites that are most dedicated to the sport, will not just provide basic markets such as tournament winners, but also go into some depth, offering three ball and two ball markets, along with a variety of innovative specials. Bet365 provide this sort of coverage and are a must for any golf fan.
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Explore Our Betting Site Guides
The Best Golf Betting Markets
In this section we will explore some of the different betting markets that are available at golf betting sites.
Tournament Winner
This is by far the most popular golf bet. With so many players competing against each other, you can get big odds pre-tournament, even for some of the favourites. This can make for a fun in-play bet with small stakes. When the action starts, in-play betting on the tournament winner becomes less of a lucky punt and the odds get shorter, as likely winners emerge.
Each Way Golf Betting
An each way bet is a wager built up in two parts. The first part of the bet is for your selection to win, while the second is for your selection to place. Each way bets are therefore popular in golf, as it gives you two chances, with bookmakers offering a quarter of the odds for the place side of the bet, for a top five or six finish.
Top 10/20 Finish
This is a pure place bet. Back a golfer to finish in the top ten or 20 of the field. If you’ve done your research, it’s not too difficult to pick out players who can produce such a finish.
Golf Match Bets
While backing a player to win or even place in a tournament is risky, match bets represent a more reliable option when betting on golf. Players will be paired together, or grouped in threes and you have to bet on which one will win. This is a bet where you can find shorter odds, with winners being easier to predict and you can add a few together to make an accumulator.
Top Nationality
In big tournaments, old but also new betting sites offer a bet where you can back the nationality of the winner. There will be shorts odds available for the likes of the USA, who have a large number of top golfers and bigger prices for nations with only a couple of players taking part.
Hole In One Betting
A hole in one used to be talked about as a rarity, but now they’re a reasonably common occurrence. There were 36 hole in ones on the PGA Tour in 2020 and you can bet on whether a tournament will see an ace.
Where To Find The Best Golf Odds
Before placing a wager, it’s always a good idea to look around the best golf betting sites to see who offer the top odds. The markets will be subtly different, with certain bookies offering better prices on certain players. Here’s our selection of the bookmakers that offer the best prices when you’re betting on golf.
- Betfred – Consistently offer extra value on favourites
- Ladbrokes – Established name always competitive
- Bet365 – In-play boosts for golf make difference
Golf Betting Odds Comparison
As an example of how odds can differ, here’s a table that shows how our top five golf betting sites compare with their prices for the 2023 Masters. We’ve highlighted the best price available in each instance.
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Golf Betting Site |
John Rahm |
Scottie Scheffler |
Rory McIlroy |
Cameron Smith |
Jordan Spieth |
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15/2 | 15/2 | 8/1 | 16/1 | 16/1 |
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15/2 | 15/2 | 9/1 | 16/1 | 16/1 |
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15/2 | 15/2 | 16/1 | 18/1 | 20/1 |
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8/1 | 15/2 | 8/1 | 16/1 | 16/1 |
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15/2 | 15/2 | 9/1 | 16/1 | 6/1 |
Golf Betting System
Put simply, value is where the the price available is bigger than it should be, in relation to the probability of victory. So if a golfer in a two ball bet is priced at evens it suggests that there is a 50/50 chance that he will win. If your research tells you that the actual probability of that player winning is more like 75%, then you have found yourself a value bet.
When it comes to golf betting systems, there is only one thing that you really need to grasp. Throughout this article you will see references to ‘value bets’. Being able to understand what makes a value wager, is key to making profit on golf betting sites.
Live Golf Betting
More than is the case with most sports, live golf betting is essential. One bad hole can see a leader quickly fall down the leaderboard and with four days of play, there can be huge swings in the odds. In a sport where there are such fluctuations, bettors need reliable golf betting sites to provide in-play betting, so they can react quickly to the action. Many sites also provide live golf streaming, which only adds to their value. Here’s our recommended sites for live golf betting.
- Bet365 – In-play betting on a huge range of golf markets
- Ladbrokes – Great website with live golf streaming
- Betfair – In-play bet boosts for golf
Best Golf Betting Apps
If you’re going to enjoy golf live betting, then you’d better have a mobile app. Few people have the time to sit in front of the TV for four days of a golf tournament, with access to their laptop. With a mobile betting app then you can live your life and still keep in touch with the golf action and place any bets that you need to make. In our opinion, Unibet have a great betting app that’s easy to navigate with super-fast loading times. Here are three others we’d recommend.
- Bet365 – App lives up to the hype
- Betfair – Access exchange betting on the go
- Ladbrokes – Slick app from established name
Betting On Golf – Most Popular Events & Tournaments
Each week of the year sees several different professional golf tournaments taking place across the globe. Yet there are certain events that transcend the golfing world and capture the imagination of the sporting audience as a whole.
We’re talking about the majors. There are four major golf championships that take place each year, which are the most prestigious titles that any player can win. The careers of top golfers are often judged by the amount of majors they win. No one is history has been more successful than Jack Nicklaus, who won 18 majors, though in recent years Tiger Woods has come close with 15 major victories.
Here’s our guide to the four majors that take place each year.
US Open Golf Betting
Taking place in June each year, the US Open has been taking place since 1895, across a variety of golf courses across America. The courses chosen are ones where scoring tends to be difficult. Generally quite long and featuring plenty of rough and undulating greens, accurate driving is rewarded.
It’s not unusual for the winner to score around par, or even over. The difficulty of the courses is rewarded with a huge prize fund of of $12.5m, which is the largest of the four majors, with the winner Matt Fitzpatrick receiving $2.6m in 2022. Given the unforgiving nature of the courses, US Open golf betting tends to be dominated by the most consistent players in the sport.
Masters Golf Betting
The Masters is the one major golf tournament that is always held at the same course. Since 1934, the Augusta National Golf Course has been hosting the Masters, which takes place in April each year. A former plant nursery, each hole is named after a tree or shrub and its a hard and fast course, which has been consistently lengthened over the years.
Of all the major championships, the Masters has the least competitors, as it’s an invitational event, featuring 90-100 players who meet certain criteria. With the smaller numbers, the competitors play in groups of three for the first two rounds, which makes Masters golf betting a little different from the other majors. Hideki Matsuyama won the Masters in 2021, landing a winner’s share of $2m from the $11.5m prize fund.
PGA Championship Golf Betting
Taking place in May each year, the PGA Championship has been running since 1916. The tournament is the only one of the majors that is exclusively for professional players, which is no surprise given that it is run by the Professional Golfers’ Association of America.
Every year the PGA Championship moves to a different course, though these days it tends to be held across a relatively small range of celebrated courses. With a prize fund of $12m, it was Phil Mickelson who picked up the winner’s cheque of $2.1m in 2021, some 16 years after winning his first PGA Championship in 2005.
Open Championship Golf Betting
The Open Championship, is generally known as simply ‘The Open’. Founded in 1860, it is the oldest golf tournament in the world and with The Open taking place in the United Kingdom, it’s also the only major that takes place outside of the USA.
Originally held at the Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland, The Open has for many years rotated between a number of select coastal links courses within the UK. Held in mid-July, it’s the final major tournament of the year and was won in 2021 by Collin Morikawam, who claimed $2m of the $11.5m prize fund.
5 Ultimate Golf Betting Tips – How To Profit From Betting On Golf
By now you will have learned a lot about golf betting. We’re going to add to your knowledge by highlighting some
Tip 1: Study Current Form
It may seem an obvious point, but it’s one that many punters miss. Golf betting odds are often dominated by the biggest names in the sport that are the highest placed in the rankings, but they are not necessarily the players in the best form.
That doesn’t mean to bet on the player that won the last tournament, because back-to-back victories are pretty rare these days. Instead, golf betting experts tend to look towards players that are creeping into form. That means to look out for golfers with form that has been improving over the weeks, without actually winning. Perhaps the odd round at each event has let them down. These are the players who are likely to represent value.
Tip 2: Consider The Course
Course form should also be considered. Many courses on the PGA Tour and European Tour are used year after year for tournaments. It’s very easy to research the specific course being used before a tournament, to see if there are any players who consistently do well there, or fail to deliver.
You’ll find that there are some players that excel at a certain course, each and every season. There are courses which demand accuracy off the tee, while others are more forgiving, favouring long hitters. Some courses are in locations where windy weather is common. Players that consistently do well on such courses, have often been brought up in areas where playing golf with strong winds is common.
Tip 3: Weather Can Make A Difference
The point above brings us on to weather. Few other sports see results impacted by weather changes, as golf. As discussed, some players thrive when playing in the wind and/or rain, while others find it difficult to cope. Weather conditions don’t always tend to be taken into consideration, when golf betting sites release their initial markets.
So make sure you look into what the weather forecast is saying. These days you can easily find hour-by-hour weather forecasts for specific locations. Within the same day you can have stormy conditions in the morning and then a perfectly calm afternoon. If you know which players are likely to thrive to certain conditions, it can be a big advantage, especially when it comes to head to head betting.
Tip 4: Other Options Than Backing The Winner
With so many top golfers capable of winning an event and the number of competitors in each tournament, picking the winner is a difficult business. Even the biggest names in golf are generally priced at large odds, so it makes sense to bet E/W on players you fancy, or for them just to place.
E/W terms can often cover a top ten finish, while with a straight place bet, you can back a player to finish in the top 20. That’s obviously a lot easier than picking out a winner, though of course this is reflected in there being smaller odds. Another market to consider is the head-to-head tournament match bets that pit two players against each other and the three balls, where three players compete.
Tip 5: Big Names Can Be Poor Value
Golf betting markets are not just decided by who the bookies think will win. They’re also impacted by who people are betting on, or are likely to bet on. This results in scenarios where certain players a shorter price than they really should be.
Casual punters will tend to back big name players, regardless of their current form, record on certain courses or ability to handle the weather. Consequently, popular, well-known golfers are often a much shorter price that they really should be and can offer poor value for the bettor.
Bottom Line
Golf betting is one of the most popular ways to gamble online and it’s no surprise. With highly competitive tournaments in which there are frequently different winners, it’s challenging, but when you do get it right there can be major rewards.
With our guide, you should have learned about the different type of golf betting markets available and the top golf betting sites. We really like Bet365’s golf coverage, but as you will have seen, there are a number of bookies that are great for betting on golf.
