The PGA Tour Should Go All In On Gambling

There is a stench of negativity in professional golf right now and justifiably so.

The PGA Tour is struggling to drum up interest in its archaic, flailing product that had a lot of warts well before LIV came around and lured away some of the Tour’s top talent.

Ratings for the month of January were abysmal compared to previous years. Sepp Straka’s win at The American Express Championship saw a 56-percent decline in Sunday viewership compared to the 2024 event.

We haven’t hit the meat of the run-up to the Masters—we could get some great leaderboards to turn the tide—but the Tour is heading in the wrong direction after seeing a 19-percent decline in Sunday viewership last year.

LIV has a new TV deal that will add brand exposure, but the league has a lot to prove after three years of ratings that are just a small fraction (in the area of 10 percent) of the Tour’s audience.

TGL, the tech-infused simulator league being led by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, has been a mixed bag. A positive start made way for two lukewarm matches before Woods and McIlroy delivered a very entertaining fourth match earlier this week.

Ratings have been solid but unspectacular, with an average viewership north of 800,000. That lags well behind the Tour’s average Sunday audience (2.2 million) but is ahead of expectations and easily beats other ESPN weekday primetime programming.

TGL can be additive but is not necessarily a game-changer for golf entertainment.

When you round that all up, it’s a concerning picture.

Most of us can agree pro golf needs a major overhaul. That will need to be in a lot of areas—getting the best players back together, creating a better TV product and investing more in YouTube golf are just a few of them.

But there is another area people don’t talk about as much: gambling.

For my money, it could be a lifeline for pro golf in the next decade and beyond.

Golf has an opportunity to engage an untapped market

Historically, professional golf has been unappealing to sports gamblers.

The reason is obvious: golf is not played in one arena nor is it played between teams.

If I bet on a football team, I am guaranteed to see every snap of the game. The same is true for most sports.

If I bet on golf, it’s hard to say if I will see every shot of the golfer I’m backing. The average golf telecast only shows around 60 percent of golf shots. There are some featured streams—and betting on someone near the top of the leaderboard will also ensure you get to see more shots—but golf coverage has few guarantees when it comes to seeing players. Betting on a random guy who is tied for 30th isn’t satisfying if you can’t watch him. Even at a big event, you might only see a small sliver of his shots.

Ultimately, bettors want to be entertained. Following the shot tracker on PGATour.com is not exactly entertaining.

What if that dynamic could change?

Slowly, it will. For the health of professional golf, it has to change at this point.

For the past decade, I’ve been hearing whispers of the Tour investing more in gambling. Like everything else, they are miles behind other sports in this area but are trying to make up ground.

The DraftKings Sportsbook at TPC Scottsdale (home of next week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open) opened in October 2023, marking one of the first big swings the Tour took on the gambling side. The 13,000-square-foot building is bustling during the tournament.

Now here comes another big swing: the Tour is launching a gambling-dedicated stream on ESPN+ for six tournaments this year. It will come online next week in Phoenix.

The stream is going to present hole-by-hole content and live odds aimed specifically to those interested in gambling. Basically, if you want to wager on the golf, you can (hopefully) flip on this stream and make bets from your couch as you follow the coverage. You’ll be getting commentary and data to make informed bets (though I’ll still find a way to lose money).

The odds being shown will be connected to ESPN Bet where you can wager from any of the 38 states that allow legal sports gambling.

That stream will feature host Jonathan Coachman, on-course reporter Michael Collins and former Tour players Matt Every and Graham DeLaet. It will be available at The Players, the Truist Championship, the Memorial, the Travelers and the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

NBC Sports had tried a dedicated golf gambling stream back in 2021 but it turned out to be a one-off as viewers complained about the poor presentation and ability to follow only one featured group.

This effort promises to have more flexibility as coverage won’t focus solely on one group. It also has more experienced talent that has worked on similar shows in the past.

Why this could be the start of something big

Golf has a long history of wagering, particularly in the UK with the Open Championship. The Masters once had a calcutta where players were “auctioned off” prior to the tournament. And Lord knows recreational golfers love playing for a $5 nassau.

Betting is a part of golf’s tapestry.

However, betting on modern professional golf has been a relative outlier in the sports gambling world.

It was only a handful of years ago when TV broadcasts felt comfortable making FedEx Cup money a main talking point. It was almost taboo prior to that. They certainly weren’t leaning into live odds.

Now that sports gambling has become so ubiquitous—to the point where practically every third commercial during a sporting event is something to do with a sportsbook—those barriers are coming down.

My prediction is that the main broadcast will slowly add more gambling elements like periodically showing live odds for those on the leaderboard. One day, the live odds will be a permanent part of the score bug in the bottom right corner of the screen. References to gambling will become more commonplace.

Even attending a tournament could change. Imagine sitting in the grandstands at a par-3, scanning a QR code and betting on which player will be closest to the hole—making the kind of bet that can only be done in person unless golf figures out how to show every shot live on TV/streaming.

As for the stream, it will likely expand to more events. Perhaps there will even be additional streams and a unique blend of personalities. Imagine something like the Manning Cast where you get Bob Does Sports and pair them with a knowledgeable bettor.

And then you add in TGL which seems ripe for gambling given that it’s primetime arena golf between two teams where every shot is shown. Fans have already been wagering on the first few matches.

There is absolutely a future where a large chunk of golf viewers are gamblers.

Golf isn’t a team sport where diehard fans will watch regardless of competitiveness. There are a few players who have that gravitational pull but it’s largely a sport that relies on a mix of interesting personalities and compelling drama.

We are light on both of those elements at the moment. And the TV product as a whole isn’t really rewarding for casual viewers who just want to watch golf shots given how few of them are shown.

What is the next reason in line to get people interested?

I know it’s unsavory to some but the answer is gambling.

Gambling gives people incentive to care. And not just golf fans, either.

Golf won’t magically turn into other sports because the game is spread across a large area. We will still only see about 60 percent of shots although, hopefully, that number goes up over time.

But dedicated streams and a mindset shift by the main broadcast could definitely make a large dent. Projecting this out 10, 15, 20 years down the line—there are a lot of ways golf could maintain a strong gambling audience in the same way horse racing does.

What are your thoughts on this? Will the dedicated live stream give you an added reason to watch the Tour this year?

Let me know below in the comments.

Top Photo Caption: ESPN+ will have a dedicated gambling stream next week for the Waste Management Phoenix Open. (GETTY IMAGES/Ben Jared)