Golf is a sport played at a leisurely pace using a small ball and a set of clubs. The aim of the game is to get your ball from the starting point, the tee, into the hole in as few shots as possible. Ordinarily, golf courses consist of either nine or 18 holes, with the former often preferred for recreational play.

Each hole has a designated number of strokes that a good player should need to finish it, known as par. If a player gets the golf ball into the hole in fewer shots than par, they are under par. Similarly, if they take more shots, they go over par. A player keeps tally of their own score over the entirety of the course and calculates a total at the end. Unlike with most games, the aim here is to get the lowest score possible.

Sometimes known as a gentleman’s game, golf has a number of famous athletes associated with it. Few are better known than Tiger Woods, who has won 15 major championships, including five Masters titles, the last of them in 2019. Woods was also at the centre of a love cheat scandal, where it emerged that he had been unfaithful to his wife with a string of women. The traction the story gained just goes to show how popular golf has become.

Golf is commonly associated with wealthy businessmen sealing an important deal, or successful retirees enjoying a sunny day. But there’s a lot more to it than that. It is a very popular sport around the world, both for those who watch and those who play.

If you lean towards those who watch, you may be interested in placing a bet, and if you hold crypto, perhaps a bet with Bitcoin. Read on to find out how golf betting is regulated and what that means for your coins.

How to Bet on Golf With Bitcoin

Once you’ve got the hang of how golf works and are seated comfortably in front of the TV, ready to watch the next big event, you might want to place a little bet. If you’re a modern kind of bettor, you might want to use Bitcoin. Here we explain what that involves, and where the legal limits are.

First of all, a golf bet is only legal with a bookmaker licensed in the country, or in the US the state, where you are. Golf is played on tours that cross borders every week, from the PGA Tour to the DP World Tour, but your betting is governed by your own local law. In the UK, look the bookmaker up on the Gambling Commission public register. In the US, check your state regulator, such as the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in Massachusetts. Elsewhere, use your national regulator’s licence list; in Malta that is the MGA register.

Second, check how the bookmaker takes payment. Licensed bookmakers must verify who you are and keep an eye on where your money comes from, so most of them work in local currency through cards, bank transfers and e-wallets. If you need to swap Bitcoin for pounds, euros or dollars, our guide on how to buy Bitcoin explains how exchanges work in both directions.

Sites that take Bitcoin, Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) or Bitcoin Cash (BCH) for golf bets and promise no identity checks are offshore operators. They are not licensed where most of their customers live, and we do not recommend them.

Some of those sites lead with huge welcome bonuses, and point out that if the value of BTC doubles overnight, so does the bonus. Remember that a bonus is only worth what the terms let you withdraw, and that the price of Bitcoin can halve as quickly as it doubles. At an unlicensed site there is also no regulator to enforce the terms at all.

Security is of paramount importance too. A Bitcoin payment to a fraudulent site cannot be reversed, and fraudsters can move the funds away quickly. The best protection is not doing extra due diligence on an offshore site, but using a bookmaker licensed where you live, where a regulator and complaints process stand behind your account.

Golf Betting With Bitcoin: Three Checks Before You Bet

1. Licence: the bookmaker appears on your regulator’s register under the same website name you are using.
2. Payments: its cashier lists methods in your own currency, and its terms explain how withdrawals and identity checks work.
3. Controls: you can set deposit limits, take a break or self-exclude from your account.

Golf Betting Markets

Golf has a big field and a long event, which shapes its markets:

• Outright winner: picking the winner from a field that can be 150 players strong, which is why even favourites are often priced well above evens.
• Each way: half the stake on the win and half on a top finish. Bookmakers set how many places they pay, so compare them.
• Top 5, top 10 and top 20 finishes: more likely to land than an outright, at shorter odds.
• Head-to-head matchups: one player against another over a round or the tournament.
• First-round leader and nationality bets: the top player after day one, or the top player from a given country.

Course form and recent results matter, but so does the weather: in links golf, players with early and late tee times can face very different conditions.

Bitcoin Golf Betting: Age Limits and Help

The minimum betting age is 18 in the UK and in most countries with licensed betting, and 21 in most US states. Licensed bookmakers check your age before you can bet or withdraw.

If golf betting stops being a bit of fun, there is free help. Gambling Therapy offers confidential online support worldwide. In the US, call or text 1-800-MY-RESET, the National Problem Gambling Helpline. In Great Britain, GAMSTOP blocks access to every licensed gambling website at once.

References

• UK Gambling Commission, public register
• Massachusetts Gaming Commission
• Malta Gaming Authority, licensee register
• PGA Tour, Tiger Woods wins the 2019 Masters
• Gambling Therapy
• NCPG, National Problem Gambling Helpline
• GAMSTOP