The Book Report: Volume 11
Welcome to Masters week. This is one of the most heavily-bet golf tournaments of the year, but by all accounts, the November date will only increase the size of the handle for the event. Week 10 of the NFL will be going on at the same time as the final round. While that might be seen as a concern due to competition for the gambling dollar, in reality, the opposite is going on.
The Book Report this week looks at where we are heading into the chase for the green jacket and the action at the counter for the football weekend.
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BetMGM
While the victory happened back in April 2019, Tiger Woods enters The Masters as the defending champ and in search of his sixth green jacket. Most years, Tiger would be receiving a heavy amount of action from the public, but 2020 is a unique year. As John Ewing of BetMGM tweeted out, it’s been a while since Tiger’s odds were this long to win at Augusta National.
To stay with The Masters, both the pros and the public both love Bryson DeChambeau’s chances to win his first Masters this week. Bryson has been bet heavily for the last several months and heading into the first round, BetMGM has a monster liability for him to be leading after 18 holes.
DraftKings Sportsbook
A week ago, Draftkings and Bryson DeChambeau made history by announcing an exclusive, multi-year relationship for him to “become the first active professional golfer to represent the digital sports entertainment and gaming company via an integrated brand.â€
In the wake of that, Bryson DeChambeau has taken the most handle (26%) and bets (12%) to win The Masters at DK. However, most bettors (64% of handle and 58% of bets) anticipate a former Masters champion to win this year rather than a Masters debutant (36% of handle and 42% of bets). That would indicate that the public is favoring experience over a younger player with momentum heading into the event.
DraftKings also announced their first ever multi-sport product to capture the action of both The Masters final round and NFL Sunday via a $100K free-to-play pool. Players can select from a menu of options for both Sunday football and Sunday golf to win real money.
FanDuel Sportsbook
The good folks at FanDuel reported some interesting betting data before the first round of the Masters.
- Matthew Wolff (+3800) began the week as the biggest liability, but Tiger is competing and per usual is now their biggest liability.
- Since Friday, Dustin Johnson has shortened from +1200 to +850. Brooks Koepka has moved from +2000 to +1800. Tiger has moved the other way from +3000 to +4700.
- The top 3 golfers by handle and bet count in the Master’s outright winner market:
- Handle: Bryson Dechambeau (+800), Dustin Johnson (+850), Jon Rahm (+1000)
- Bet count: Bryson Dechambeau, Tiger Woods (+4700), Dustin Johnson (+850)
- The First Round Matchup that has the most handle is Fitzpatrick (+260) /Thomas (+115)/Koepka (+185). Fitzpatrick has a resounding 94% of the handle.
In other news at FD, the NFL futures market has seen some interesting movement. Josh Allen has jumped up to +1800 in the MVP market from +2800 last week after out-dueling the MVP Favorite Russell Wilson (+125). Allen trails only Wilson, Patrick Mahomes (+220) and Aaron Rodgers (+400). And finally, after a huge road win the New Orleans Saints are now the third lowest odds in the outright Super Bowl winner market at +750, down from +1200 last week. The only teams in front of them are Chiefs (+350) and Steelers (+600).
Other Sportsbooks
BetRivers and Sugarhouse have also repoted some interesting Masters betting information. Bryson DeChambeau (+700 to win) enters this weekend as the odds-on favorite, and is backed by the largest percentage of outright winning handle (12.83%) and outright winning bets (8.26%) of any golfer in the field. Dustin Johnson (+800) and Justin Thomas (+1200) are right behind DeChambeau in terms of outright winning handle with 8.6% and 7.89%, respectively.
Big bets continue to roll in, including a $13,000 wager on Brooks Koepka (+1600) in Pennsylvania with a potential payout of $221,000. Only four golfers are backed by a larger percentage of outright winning handle than Koepka, the 2019 Masters runner-up.
The good folks at Circa Las Vegas have put up an interesting betting menu including a finishing position prop that has received a lot of attention from the gamblers in Sin City.
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Matt Perrault is a featured writer at BettingPros and the host of the Daily Juice podcast. For more from Matt, check out his archive and follow him @sportstalkmatt.