The British Open: Britons Love To Bet On It

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.  So says Chuck Culpepper of the Chicago Tribune.

He points out that these feisty Brits will go as far as to bet on the daily color of Ian Poulter's outfits.

Sports911.com is anticipating heavy betting activity on the British Open as we descend upon it this week.

North American facing bookmakers the likes of Betmaker.com will be offering your typical Odds to Win the British Open prior to each day's activity in addition to matchup betting and they will get action from US bettors.

But it's in Great Britain where the British Open takes center stage in terms of wagering.

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," Robin Hutchinson of Ladbrokes told the Tribune. 

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.

Sports911.com, with its heavy presence in the United Kingdom, notes that the odds to win this year's British Open piece rivaled most other content on Monday.

"There are heavy inquiries into betting on the British Open days in advance," explains Sports911.com Senior Editor, Payton O'Brien.  "It appears initially that this will become the most inquired about golf event in terms of betting here at Sports911."

The British Open betting frenzy also illustrates how gambling has made the trek from "from sin to vice to socially accepted leisure activity.

Griffiths, a professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University 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, according to the Tribune report.

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.

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Christopher Costigan, Sports911.com

Originally published July 17, 2007 8:13 am ET