The PGA Tour has announced that it would be launching a gambling market beginning in 2020.
The development was publicized by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, during the very first event held in Japan — the Zozo Championship. Monahan explained that adding a gambling element to the PGA Tour would draw in new fans and would help keep the old fans interested for longer periods of time.
Monahan also believes that fans would be more engaged in events when they have money on the line.
Monahan assured fans that the PGA Tour has already established sufficient monitoring and integrity systems to keep any betting scandals from happening.
Considerable integrity monitoring will be required in order to prevent any betting scandals. Monahan confirmed that the Tour has already got monitoring and integrity systems in place to prevent such incidents.
With select states in the United States already giving the green light to sports betting, the PGA Tour naturally wants its slice of the pie. As of the moment, 13 states have open sportsbooks in operation.
Monahan said: “You can either participate or not, and we feel smarter to be participating… versus let others control it.”
However, information on what kinds of betting markets would be available next year was scarce. But Monahan did assert that these markets were being produced in collaboration with partner, IMG Arena, which is an expert in the sports betting industry. Their number one priority throughout the market creation process is that of integrity.
In the past few years, the PGA Tour has begun hosting events across Asia in an attempt to capitalize on the growing interest in golf throughout the continent. Three consecutive events are being held in Asia this year, which are the CJ Cup in South Korea, the Zozo Championship in Japan, and the HSBC Champions in China.
The PGA Tour is also committed to hosting even more events in Asia. The initial deal is to have the Zozo Championship run for the next six years, but Monahan said it would be a fixture on the Tour for many more years to come.
He said: “Our intention is to never leave Japan, to always have a PGA Tour event in Japan from this day forward.”
To further take advantage of the sports betting space, the PGA Tour is preparing to sell exclusive live tournament information to sportsbooks all over the world. This exclusive data comes from an innovative ShotLink system, which keeps track of every shot for every player on each hole of an event with the use of a series of cameras and lasers.
