Fixed-Odds Betting on Golf
The Basics
Fixed-odds betting is the most familiar form of betting for most golf punters. Bookmakers offer a wide-range of markets to bet on including the outright winner market, where big priced winners are common.
Odds are represented as either fractional (20/1) or decimal (21.0) where the profit on a successful bet is a multiple of the stake by the odds.
Coral's Outright betting market
Most fixed-odds bookmaker sites look similar to this, with navigation to events on the left side-bar, the selections and odds in the middle and the "bet slip" displayed at the top of the right side-bar.
Odds are fixed at the time you place your bet, unlike horse racing where you can take a starting-price, so once a bet is confirmed you will know your potential returns.
The Markets
Fixed-Odds bookmakers offer a multitude of markets on the Majors, PGA & European Tour Events along with other world tours. For Fixed-Odds betting, the three most popular markets to bet on are the Outright Winner, Two & Three-balls and the Place markets.
Tournament Outright Winner : Backing the winner of a golf tournament can be one of the most rewarding challenges in golf betting.
Bookmakers give the choice to back either "Win" or "Each-way" (win and place) with Each-way bets a good option when backing a player at a bigger price. The place terms for Each-way betting will be displayed on the winner market page - which can range in full-field tournaments from 5 places, 1/4 odds up to as much as 10 places, 1/6 odds. Varying places terms make deciding the best bet (price) more complicated on each-way bets as bookmakers will often compensate for better place terms with worse prices.
Dead-heat rules will often apply to the places - see our betting calculator page for more on calculating returns on place dead-heats.
Place Betting Market : Sometimes you might want to back a player to perform well in a tournament without feeling they will win. Most bookmakers will offer odds on Top 5, 10 and 20 which can give you a good chance of a return on outsiders who might play well without contending.
BetVictor's Place markets
For the most part, bookmakers will derive their odds based on the win odds so this can create opportunities if you believe a player is more likely to place than their win odds would suggest (for example players who are consistent but have a poor win record)
2 & 3 Ball Betting Markets : Two and three-ball betting allows you to bet on players in the groups they play in a tournament. It's common to put together a number of players in multiples, giving the potential for bigger returns on your bets.
Ladbrokes' 3-ball betting market
Two and three-ball betting can make for an interesting challenge as you are betting on a one-round performance. Which can mean selections may not only be influenced by the relative merits of a player (course & form) but also player's tournament position (such as close to the cut, leading a tournament or coming off a high/low round)
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Advantages Of Fixed Odds Betting
Plenty of Markets : Fixed-odds bookmakers have steadily increased their coverage of world tours to the point where they cover all the main world tours (including some of the 2nd and 3rd-tier feeder tours) Exchange and Spread betting companies are restricted by liquidity and interest to only the Euro and PGA Tour whereas Fixed-odds Bookmakers will price-up a wide range of tours.
Competitive Markets : With a wide choice of bookmakers, fixed odds betting allows you to "shop around" to get the best price. This can also mean getting improved place terms on Each-way bets and Money-back offers including Acca Insurance on 2/3-ball accumulators.
Back Multiples : Unlike Spread and Exchange betting where you can't combine selections on golf bets, fixed-odds betting allows for big returns from small stakes when you back accumulators. Not only can you back acca's for a day's 2 & 3 balls, you can also back a "transatlantic double" on the winner of the week's PGA and European tournaments with the chance of landing a big return.
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Disadvantages Of Fixed-Odds Betting
Restricting winners : Bookmakers are becoming increasingly restrictive to punters who show an ability to win. This can mean restricting stakes, often to a level which amounts to banning players.
Confusing place terms : Increasingly bookmakers have offered more places for each-way bets with up to 1/6 odds,10 places. Although they would claim more places for each-way bets is a positive for the punter, it becomes more difficult to compare what is a good price as bookmakers lower the odds to compensate.