Professional golf is one of the most popular sports in the world, and given the advent of new, legal online sportsbooks, the PGA Tour is becoming one of the hottest sports to gamble on.
Betting on pro golf can provide added excitement and a bang-for-your-buck element to your viewing experience — whether you’re watching at home or in person behind the ropes.
Betting on the PGA Tour is simple but can seem complicated. Fortunately we’re here to help.
Benefits of Betting PGA Online
The best way to bet on golf is to do it online on your desktop, laptop or mobile phone. Betting online is extremely convenient, since you don’t have to travel to a sportsbook, can do it while you’re out in the world and can access multiple sportsbooks with just a few taps on your device.
Online sportsbooks give new users terrific welcome bonuses that are basically the best promotions each sportsbook will ever offer. Cashing in on these bonuses is the best way to bet on golf on a week-in, week-out basis.
Online betting also allows live betting, or gambling while the action is still going on. Golf can move slowly enough to allow bettors some time to assess the odds before putting in their live wagers. But live betting on golf still requires quick decision-making since any odds-change adversely affects odds and profit.
The best part about betting on golf online is bettors receive payment in their accounts almost instantly after their bet hits, instead of the amount of time spent visiting a casino window or traveling to a different town, which means you can get back at it within minutes of your wager being settled.
Plus, there are all sorts of customer-service options available in case something goes sideways, and depositing and withdrawing money is a breeze.
Best PGA Betting Sites
Caesars Sportsbook
Caesars is an exceptional online sportsbook, especially for golf betting. Caesars offers a robust number of betting markets, and every wagers nets users Caesars Rewards, which can be used to cash in hotel and restaurant credits at Caesars properties and more.
Plus, Caesars provides exceptional odds and a ton of markets, including futures for every major tournament and the Ryder Cup, right at a bettor’s fingertips.
FanDuel Sportsbook
FanDuel is the No. 1 sportsbook in the United States, and it’s not hard to see why. FanDuel has elite odds and offers bettors a unique gambling experience compared to other sites.
The FanDuel online sportsbook was the first to offer users the option to combine multiple events from the same event, via the same-game parlay a feature that has since become standard in the online betting community. FanDuel has upped the ante by creating the Same-Game Parlay+, which allows users to combine markets from multiple games, to max out payouts.
FanDuel is also the only online sportsbook that enables users to deposit and withdraw via Venmo, which is one more way it is making life more convenient for online bettors.
BetRivers Sportsbook
BetRivers is an elite options for prospective golf gamblers, especially those who are new to gambling online or sports wagering in general. BetRivers gives tips and advice for gamblers and also has a handy glossary of terms that describes typical gambling jargon like plus- and minus-money, odds, moneyline and against-the-spread.
Best of all, BetRivers has one of the best welcome bonuses, a new-deposit match of up to $250, which will double players’ accounts instantaneously. That means your golf betting can go twice as far, at least to start.
PointsBet Sportsbook
PointsBet isn’t exactly the easiest site to figure out right away compared to others. You just need to choose your location from a different menu and then click to go to the sportsbook. However, PointsBet has a compelling welcome bonus and a wagering type that is unlike any other.
PointsBet enables users to bet either traditionally or by PointsBetting, which rewards or penalizes bettors for how right or wrong they are. For instance, if you pick Jon Rahm to finish better than 11th place in an event, and he wins, PointsBet will give you a bonus. However, if he misses the cut, they’ll take a slew of valuable funds — much more than your average sportsbook would.
As you can see, there is definitely a risk, but the welcome offer will at least make you immune to the first wager. PointsBet gives users two bonuses up to $2,000 — including a $1,500 risk-free points-bet.
BetMGM Sportsbook
All of the sportsbooks that you’ll find listed here all have top-level user interfaces, and BetMGM is no exception. The site is laid out in a way where everything is very easily identifiable, especially golf since the PGA Tour logo is recognizable at the top of the screen.
BetMGM has great odds and offers data so bettors can make the most informed decisions. Plus, BetMGM offers a live-streaming option for people who want to track their wagers right in the app.
DraftKings Sportsbook
Betting on golf with DraftKings is a breeze, with a user-friendly interface and easy-to-navigate table of available markets for prospective bettors to peruse.
Combining betting markets on the DraftKings sportsbook is a breeze. Simply toggle the “same-game-parlay" icon at the top, and you’re on your way to putting together a great, multi-market wager that could pay out big.
Best PGA Tour Bets You Can Make
Top Player By Nationality
Choose the player to finish highest in the leaderboard by his nationality. Most sportsbooks will offer bets on the top-finishing U.S. player, top British-born player, top Swedish-born player, etc., These are great markets to consider if you have a preferred golfer but aren’t sure if he’ll finish atop the leaderboard or in the top-5 but still want to get good odds.
Head-to-Heads
Maybe you already bet your preferred golfer to win or finish top-5 or top-10 and he isn’t in contention but still want to root for him anyway. You can choose him to finish atop his group of two or three in a given round or day at long but winnable odds.
Top-20/Top-10/Top-5 Finish
You can bet on each player to win, but only one golfer can win each week. Betting on your preferred golfer to finish in the top-5, top-10 or top-20 can mitigate some of the heartbreak if your player finishes second or worse.
Live Betting on the PGA Tour
Just because an event has started is no reason to stop betting. Betting on the PGA is ongoing as gamblers can live-wager on group outcomes, the number of shots a player will take in his next hole and much more. Obviously, bettors can live wager on outcomes like who will win or who will finish atop the leaderboard in the ongoing round.
Live betting takes quick-thinking, but fortune can favor the bold when it comes to in-game wagers.
How To Pick the Best PGA Betting Sites
- Welcome Bonus: A welcome bonus is one of the major things that differentiates online betting sites. Start with the best ones available first, ideally ones that max out your playable funds, then work your way to the others.
- Odds: Simply put: the best odds result in the best payouts, and we’re all trying to win money here, right? Shopping for the best odds on the golf markets you love is integral since you’ll undoubtedly be disappointed to leave money on the table.
- Promos: Another of the ways betting sites set themselves apart, since odds boosts are unique to each gambling site. Say the majority of sportsbooks has Dustin Johnson’s odds to win at +1000, but another site is boosting it to +1500. You’ll want to take him to win on the site with the best odds available.
- Banking Methods: This one is a simple concept: If the site doesn’t have adequate methods to deposit or withdraw there’s not much sense in playing on that site.
- An Actual Desktop Platform: Some new online sportsbooks only have mobile capabilities. Without a desktop option, this could alienate some potential players, including you. Always be sure that a desktop version exists if you do not wish to play mobile.
Why You Should Avoid Illegal Betting Sites
Illegal betting sites won’t get you prosecuted, but they will make it hard for you to win. Offshore gambling sites have limited deposit and withdrawal options plus typically have substandard odds.
Plus, with legal and regulated online sportsbooks so widely available, and more cropping up seemingly every week, there is no reason to wager with offshore sites. It just doesn’t makes sense.
PGA Betting Promo Offers To Keep in Mind
First-Deposit Bonus
First-deposit bonuses give you the opportunity to essentially double whatever your first deposit is, which makes it one of the best offers around. Some online sportsbooks make users play through the bonus a certain number of times, but sites like BetRivers and others will only make users do so 1x, which means if you win you can take your cash and be on your way immediately.
Still, if you’re interested in putting in money and playing for a while a first-deposit bonus is an awesome boost.
Risk-Free Bet
Risk-Free Bets are the most popular promo offers in the US. The basic premise is that you sign up for a new account, make your first deposit and place your first bet. If that first bet is a loss, you will get a refund in the form of either a free bet or site credit.
The best risk-free bets reimburse in site credit, which means that if your bet is a loss you’ll receive playable funds in the amount of your first bet. Typically those have a 1x playthrough, meaning you need to gamble that reimbursed amount one time through to cash out.
When you get a refund in the form of a free bet, you get another shot at winning your money back. Free bets will typically only pay profits on winning bets but not the stake. For example, if your first bet is a loss, and you get a $500 free bet refund, that free bet is a one-time use bet that can be placed on another bet.
No Deposit Bonus/Free Bet
Imagine being able to just register for an account, receive some site credit, and be able to bet right away. With this type of bonus, you’re able to.
A no deposit bonus is also sometimes available as a partner to a deposit bonus or another more lucrative welcome bonus or when new online sportsbooks are trying to lure users to sign up in states that don’t yet offer online gambling but are about to roll it out.
Bet & Get
Bet and gets are great since the typically offer users a large payout for a small amount wagered on a likely event. For instance, an online sportsbook may offer $200 in site credit for new users who bet $5 on Tony Finau, Dustin Johnson or Sergio Garcia to make the cut at a given event they all are playing in.
Site credit is typically reimbursed in the form of $20-$50 free bets, and if those win they’ll make your playable funds go through the roof right from the get-go, which is why bet-and-gets are a great bonus to take advantage of.
Where Can I Legally Bet on the PGA Online?
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Michigan
- Montana
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- Tennessee
- Virginia
- Washington D.C
- West Virginia
- New York
- Louisiana
- Arizona
- Wyoming
- Florida (temporarily suspended)
Choose More Than One PGA Betting Site
Having money deposited in more than one online sportsbook is integral since users should be interested in odds shopping and take advantage of promos like odds boosts and profit boosts.
Since each online sportsbook has its own welcome bonus it is also important for users to take advantage of them to max out their playable funds. Betting sites don’t just give away money forever, and once it’s gone it’s gone.
