The newly crowned Open Champion dominates the betting ahead of the USPGA Championship.
Jordan Spieth certainly made punters sweat yesterday, as he struggled round the front nine of Royal Birkdale and let his three shot lead slip. Nevertheless, he managed to dig deep and secured the win after playing some stunning golf on the back nine, which Matt Kuchar could not respond to. This was much to the relief of many Oddschecker users, as Spieth was by far the most backed golfer in the field going into the final day. In fact, of bets placed in the final 24 hours of play, 73% of all stakes were in favour of the young American. With a number of four figure bets coming in for him during the latter part of the tournament.
This display of skill and mental strength in the closing stages of yesterday’s round seems to have only solidified people’s faith in Spieth. This is especially apparent when looking at the betting patterns for the upcoming USPGA Championship at Quail Hollow. When looking at total money staked on the outright market over the last six months, Spieth was responsible for just 16%; when looking at the last 24 hours, this figure rises to 48% of total stakes. Another indication of this growing support is that today, 36% of bets on the outright market have been on Spieth, with McIlroy being the second most backed with just 10%.
The bookies have also reacted by cutting Spieth’s odds for the USPGA from 11/1 to 8/1 overnight. However, this single figure price tag does not seem to be deterring punters, as bets are still flying in. If Spieth can get off to a good start at Quail Hollow, those who do bet on him will have to hope he can show a similar resilience to this weekend and not collapse as he has done in the past (that horror show on 12 at Augusta still haunts many). Time will tell but we wonder if this matured version of Spieth is actually a much safer bet than years gone by?
