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What will the 2008 British Open payouts be? The answer: They are going to be huge no matter who wins this one since Tiger Woods is not participating and anyone remotely posted as favorites (i.e. Sergio Garcia) are not going to win.
With the 2008 British Open coming to a conclusion, there stood a solid chance that last year's winner Padraig Harrington could win it again. That would be bad news for the likes of Ireland's biggest bookmaker, Paddy Power, which took a bath last year when its native son won. This year Harrington had 22/1 odds coming in at Sportingbet. That's a payout of US$2200 for every US$100 bet. Harrington odds were 5/2 heading into Sunday.
Meanwhile, Greg Norman had still holding his own up until noon. Norman stood to pay US$6600 and up for every US$100 bet. With a win by Norman, he would become oldest winner of a major championship. He had fallen back a bit with only a little more than an hour left in the tournament.
Another big payout potential: England's Simon Wakefield. And this is more bad news for the British bookmakers. The British Open is the single most bet on event of the year in The United Kingdom. British and Irish bookmakers alike will be hoping that one of their own does not win as punters tend to support local golfers heavily.
Simon Wakefield opened at most US-facing online betting establishments the likes of BetOnline as a "field" option paying US$1000 or less per US$100 bet. Both BetOnline and Sportingbet were offering odds on the upcoming Ryder's Cup (note: Sportingbet does not accept US customers at this time).
Ian Poulter was just one off the lead. Poulter also opened at 66/1 odds and was looking hot coming down the stretch.
pos Hole Par Player
1 13 +6 P HARRINGTON
2 17 +7 I POULTER
T3 17 +9 C WOOD (am)
T3 16 +9 H STENSON
T3 15 +9 A KIM
T3 13 +9 G NORMAN
British amateur Chris Wood was closing in on the lead at 12:30 pm EST. He was initially listed as part of the "field" odds.
Swedish golfer Henrik Stenson was also within reach having opened at 40/1 odds.
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Alistair Prescott, Gambling911.com
Originally published July 20, 2008 11:19 am EST
