Do Britons love golf? Bet on it
Wagering on Open remains as popular as, well, breathing
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By Chuck Culpepper
Tribune news service
July 17, 2007
EDINBURGH, Scotland -- While Americans tend to bet on golf while playing it with friends or neighbors or that egotistical cheater from the legal department at work, golf-minded Britons tend to bet on golf while, well, breathing.
They bet on their Open so reflexively and so enthusiastically that some of them this very week will wager not only on the winner or whether there'll be a hole-in-one up the coast at Carnoustie, but on the prospective daily color of Ian Poulter's outfits.
"I'm guessing Mr. Poulter's clothing will probably be looked at" as a betting concept, said Robin Hutchison of the wagering chain Ladbrokes.
Thereby does Mr. Poulter's notorious fashion iridescence come to epitomize a national pastime of betting not as a way to make money but as a way to watch an event with an added dose of zeal.
The guy who just came into a Ladbrokes on Tuesday morning and bet $14,000 on Ernie Els probably wants to make some money, but most people just want to lord a successful bet over others in the pub.
It's "my assessment of the situation versus your assessment of the situation," said Mark Griffiths, a professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University.
"I think the vast majority of people who have a bet in England fully expect to have lost that money," said Rupert Adams of the William Hill betting agency. "The assumption is that it's gone already, the money."
That's certainly the assumption of the people who have combined for a grand national total of 31 pounds (about $63) through Ladbrokes on 63-year-old Tony Jacklin at 10,000-1, and it's certainly the assumption of Sheena Willoughby, who with husband Jack runs the Dunvegan Hotel pub at St. Andrews.
Absolutely everybody in the pub has put some pounds down on somebody, and absolutely everybody includes Willoughby. She has two separate bets of 12.50 pounds (about $26) at 25-1 on Jim Furyk (a former customer she considers a decent soul), 20 pounds (about $41) at 100-1 on Charles Howell III and 20 pounds at 200-1 on 48-year-old Tom Lehman (former guest at the hotel).
It's sentiment laced with knowledge, it's legion this time of year, it results in mass romantic bets on the Englishman Colin Montgomerie, and it's part of the reason the British Open reigns as "the biggest sporting event of the summer," Hutchison said.
He estimates Ladbrokes will take in 5 million pounds (about $10 million) this week, and that because Ladbrokes usually gobbles up 20 percent of the market, he can reckon that a national take of "25 million to 30 million pounds for four days of golf isn't bad."
It trumps Wimbledon by about 20 percent, ranks alongside the Grand National steeplechase race of springtime and lures roughly as many wagerers -- if not the money -- of the FA Cup soccer final each May, Adams said.
It also illustrates how gambling has made the trek from "from sin to vice to socially accepted leisure activity," Griffiths said.
Griffiths, who specializes in the psychology of gambling, has spent 20 years studying addictions while maintaining that they remain rare in British society. "You have to realize that gambling for most people is natural, normal and causes little or no problems," he said.
With the British Open and other golf events, it even has a vivid parallel history.
Ladbrokes still reels from having decided that Tiger Woods wouldn't win the 2006 Open at Royal Liverpool, offering him at 6-1 early on. "The thinking was he didn't like links golf," Hutchison said, and that thinking cost about 5 million pounds ($10 million).
It also lost a significantly smaller amount on whether Woods would shake hands with Nick Faldo on the first day as they played in the same group.
Woods did, and naysayers lost.
Unlikely winner Todd Hamilton started the 2004 event at 500-1, said Adams of William Hill, while equally unlikely winner Ben Curtis began 2003 at 300-1, but only because, Adams recalled, "There was a very small article in a newspaper about Ben Curtis by somebody, just talking about how he was coming over from a small town in the States and how it was his first Open."
Had Woods won the 2007 Masters, Adams said, William Hill would have lost 500,000 pounds (about $1 million), rather than the 1 million pounds ($2 million) it gained when Zach Johnson edged the runner-up Woods. And on the morning of the final round of the 1996 Masters, Britons ignored Faldo at 50-1 as he trailed 66-1 shot Greg Norman by six strokes before prevailing and hugging Norman in profound sympathy.
In the hundreds of agency histories lie thousands of personal histories, and so Willoughby can tell of having Thomas Bjorn at 100-1 in the 2003 Open. Bjorn led by two shots with three holes left, and just before he took three shots to escape a bunker by No. 16, ushering Curtis to the fore, Willoughby said, "I was in the bar, practically buying everyone a drink."
She spoke for a nation.
Wagering on Open remains as popular as, well, breathing
Advertisement
By Chuck Culpepper
Tribune news service
July 17, 2007
EDINBURGH, Scotland -- While Americans tend to bet on golf while playing it with friends or neighbors or that egotistical cheater from the legal department at work, golf-minded Britons tend to bet on golf while, well, breathing.
They bet on their Open so reflexively and so enthusiastically that some of them this very week will wager not only on the winner or whether there'll be a hole-in-one up the coast at Carnoustie, but on the prospective daily color of Ian Poulter's outfits.
"I'm guessing Mr. Poulter's clothing will probably be looked at" as a betting concept, said Robin Hutchison of the wagering chain Ladbrokes.
Thereby does Mr. Poulter's notorious fashion iridescence come to epitomize a national pastime of betting not as a way to make money but as a way to watch an event with an added dose of zeal.
The guy who just came into a Ladbrokes on Tuesday morning and bet $14,000 on Ernie Els probably wants to make some money, but most people just want to lord a successful bet over others in the pub.
It's "my assessment of the situation versus your assessment of the situation," said Mark Griffiths, a professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University.
"I think the vast majority of people who have a bet in England fully expect to have lost that money," said Rupert Adams of the William Hill betting agency. "The assumption is that it's gone already, the money."
That's certainly the assumption of the people who have combined for a grand national total of 31 pounds (about $63) through Ladbrokes on 63-year-old Tony Jacklin at 10,000-1, and it's certainly the assumption of Sheena Willoughby, who with husband Jack runs the Dunvegan Hotel pub at St. Andrews.
Absolutely everybody in the pub has put some pounds down on somebody, and absolutely everybody includes Willoughby. She has two separate bets of 12.50 pounds (about $26) at 25-1 on Jim Furyk (a former customer she considers a decent soul), 20 pounds (about $41) at 100-1 on Charles Howell III and 20 pounds at 200-1 on 48-year-old Tom Lehman (former guest at the hotel).
It's sentiment laced with knowledge, it's legion this time of year, it results in mass romantic bets on the Englishman Colin Montgomerie, and it's part of the reason the British Open reigns as "the biggest sporting event of the summer," Hutchison said.
He estimates Ladbrokes will take in 5 million pounds (about $10 million) this week, and that because Ladbrokes usually gobbles up 20 percent of the market, he can reckon that a national take of "25 million to 30 million pounds for four days of golf isn't bad."
It trumps Wimbledon by about 20 percent, ranks alongside the Grand National steeplechase race of springtime and lures roughly as many wagerers -- if not the money -- of the FA Cup soccer final each May, Adams said.
It also illustrates how gambling has made the trek from "from sin to vice to socially accepted leisure activity," Griffiths said.
Griffiths, who specializes in the psychology of gambling, has spent 20 years studying addictions while maintaining that they remain rare in British society. "You have to realize that gambling for most people is natural, normal and causes little or no problems," he said.
With the British Open and other golf events, it even has a vivid parallel history.
Ladbrokes still reels from having decided that Tiger Woods wouldn't win the 2006 Open at Royal Liverpool, offering him at 6-1 early on. "The thinking was he didn't like links golf," Hutchison said, and that thinking cost about 5 million pounds ($10 million).
It also lost a significantly smaller amount on whether Woods would shake hands with Nick Faldo on the first day as they played in the same group.
Woods did, and naysayers lost.
Unlikely winner Todd Hamilton started the 2004 event at 500-1, said Adams of William Hill, while equally unlikely winner Ben Curtis began 2003 at 300-1, but only because, Adams recalled, "There was a very small article in a newspaper about Ben Curtis by somebody, just talking about how he was coming over from a small town in the States and how it was his first Open."
Had Woods won the 2007 Masters, Adams said, William Hill would have lost 500,000 pounds (about $1 million), rather than the 1 million pounds ($2 million) it gained when Zach Johnson edged the runner-up Woods. And on the morning of the final round of the 1996 Masters, Britons ignored Faldo at 50-1 as he trailed 66-1 shot Greg Norman by six strokes before prevailing and hugging Norman in profound sympathy.
In the hundreds of agency histories lie thousands of personal histories, and so Willoughby can tell of having Thomas Bjorn at 100-1 in the 2003 Open. Bjorn led by two shots with three holes left, and just before he took three shots to escape a bunker by No. 16, ushering Curtis to the fore, Willoughby said, "I was in the bar, practically buying everyone a drink."
She spoke for a nation.
