The Loop
Masters 2019: Someone bet $85,000 on Tiger Woods winning his fifth green jacket—and the payout would be historic
Andrew Redington
One Nevada bettor is going all in on the possibility of Tiger Woods winning this week's Masters. And by all in, we really mean all in—doing so in a way that would result in a record payday from one sportsbook.
William Hill, the London-based casino conglomerate that operates 115 sports books in Nevada and others in states across the country, accepted a $85,000 bet on Tiger Woods to win the Masters at 14-1 from a customer in one of its Nevada books on Tuesday afternoon. We'll save you the math: The payout would be $1,190,000, which now accounts for the largest liability on a single wager in William Hill's U.S. history.
When reached out on the phone on Tuesday evening, William Hill's Director of Trading Nick Bogdanovich said he thought the bettor—whom was likely a first-time customer at the book—had likely made a mistake when entering the wager.
"I thought it was probably an $85 or $8,500 bet," Bogdanovich said. "But they were for real."
Bogdanovich called his boss to discuss the wager before accepting it. Previously, William Hill's largest wager for a golf future was in the $10,000 to $25,000 range from loyal customers at smaller odds, with the largest possible payout being in the $300,000 range, Bogdanovich said.
The Tiger bet blows that out of the water.
The massive wager pushed Tiger's odds down at William Hill to 10-1 at last check, which places his odds behind only favorite Rory McIlroy (7-1) and ties him with Dustin Johnson (also 10-1). Other books still have Tiger listed at 14-1.
Though the Masters always sees the largest amount of money wagered on the year, Bogdanovich called the 2019 Masters a "betting tsunami" for the book, with the massive amount of storylines and increase in sports gambling on the whole.
"The economy's good, sports betting's at an all-time high and we're seeing massive increases in the use of mobile apps," Bogdanovich said. "Plus all the great talent in golf and the storylines, and we're seeing a ton of increased in interest this year."
As of Monday, FanDuel Sportsbook in New Jersey said the most money bet on an outright Masters ticket was Tiger Woods at 10.5 percent with Rory coming at 8 percent. William Hill says Tiger has now attracted 22 percent of the book's money with the historic wager placed. Six percent of the money is on Rory. DraftKings Sportsbook said Jordan Spieth had garnered the most money wagered in the outright market as of Monday at 20 percent of money. Tiger was at 12 percent.