GOLF BETTING GLOSSARY
Albatross
Three under par for a hole. Albatross’s are very rare but are most likely on relatively short par 5’s where a player holes his second shot to the green.
Arbitrage
An arbitrage is a system of betting whereby bettors take advantage of differing quotes on the same market amongst bookmakers (usually spread betting firms) to guarantee themselves a profit. If one firm offers a spread quote of 43-45 on a market and a rival firm offers 47-49, an alert bettor could buy at 45 and sell immediately at 47 to guarantee an instant two point profit.
Back
To bet on a player in a golf tournament.
Birdie
One under par for a hole. Holing in two shots on a par 3, three shots on a par four etc.
Bogey
One over par for a hole. A golfer taking four shots on a par3, five on a par four, etc.
Buy
A bet that the result in a golf event will be higher than the quote offered by a spread betting firm. A bettor always buys at the higher of the two prices offered in a spread quote.
The only exception to this is in the Finishing Positions market where you bet on where a player will finish at the end of the tournament. In the Finishing Positions market you should 'Sell' if you think a player will do well and 'Buy' if you think he'll do poorly.
For instance if you fancied Sergio Garcia to perform well in the British Open and his quote was 19-21 then you should Sell at 19. If Garcia finished 3rd in the tournament and your stake was £5 per point then you would have won (19 - 3) x £5 = £90
Closing Bet
A gambler closes a running or Open bet by placing a second bet of the same amount in the opposite direction to the first. By closing the bet, the bettor ends his interest in the event and crystallizes any profits or losses accrued. This is one of the advantages of spread betting or the betting exchanges compared to fixed odds bookmakers, in that they allow the management of betting positions whilst a golf tournament is still taking place.
Double Bogey
Two over par for a hole. Taking five shots on a par 3, seven on a par 5 etc.
Eagle
Two under par for a hole. Again most commonly scored on par 5 holes where the player reaches the green in two shots and sinks the putt. A hole-in-one on a par 3 is also an eagle.
Go-High
To 'Buy' in a Golf spread betting market. You would 'Go-High' when you think your selection would do better than the spread betting firm's quotation.
The only exception would be on the Finishing Positions market where you would 'Go-High' if you thought your selection would perform poorly and finish down the field.
Go-Low
To 'Sell' in a Golf spread betting market. You would 'Go-Low' when you think your selection would do worse than the spread betting firm's quotation.
The only exception would be on the Finishing Positions market where you would 'Go-Low' if you fancy your selection to perform well and finish high up the leaderboard.
Greens In Regulation (GIR)
A statistical measure of how consistently a player reaches greens in the regulation number of strokes. On a par 4, regulation is two strokes to the green, on a par 5, three strokes etc.
In-Running
A term to describe the ability to bet during a golf tournament. Prices will be constantly updated as events unfold. In-Running betting usually applies to spread betting and gambling on the betting exchanges although some of the fixed odd bookmakers now offer this feature too
Lay
A bettor can lay a selection on the betting exchanges such as Betfair and BetDaq. This is the opposite of backing a selection and involves taking other gamblers bets on a particular player, effectively acting like a conventional bookmaker.
Liquidity
The term used to describe the volume of betting transactions on a particular market (or within a betting exchange) and how easy it is to place/lay a bet. Of the betting exchanges Betfair has by far the best liquidity.
Make-Up
The result at which a spread betting event is settled. A 72 hole match event between Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington has Mickelson favourite by 3 strokes. Mickelson finishes the tournament 8 shots clear of Harrington so the make-up is 5 (8-3).
Match Bets
A bet on the performance between two golfers usually over 18 holes (if they are paired to play together) or 72 holes.
Par
The standard number of shots a player is expected to take for a particular hole. The length in yards of the hole determines the par score. Par is also applied to a round of 18 holes by adding up the individual par scores allotted to each hole. A typical par score for an 18 hole golf course is 72.
Hedging
The practice of laying off all or part of a bet by making a bet in the opposite direction. For example, you lay a bet of £20 at 4/1 (5.0 using Betfair decimal odds) on Tiger Woods to win the US Masters before the tournament begins. Your liability is £90 if Woods wins. At the start of the final round, he’s 7 shots behind the leader and his odds have drifted to 40/1. You look set fair to win £20 but are wary of a late Woods rally. By having a £3 bet on Woods you effectively guarantee yourself a profit regardless of whether Woods wins or loses:-
| Result | Winning bet | Losing bet | Net Profit |
| Woods loses | £20 | £3 | £17 |
| Woods wins | £3 x 40/1 = £120 | £20 @ 4/1 = £80 | £40 |
Overround
A statistical measure of the profitability of the odds offered by a betting firm on a particular event.
To use a simple example, the odds of a coin-toss landing either heads or tails are exactly 50% either way. So the fair odds for heads or tails would be even money for each selection.. A bookmaker would probably offer odds of something like 5/6 (bet £6 to win £5) which represents a 54.54% chance. Adding the percentage odds on each selection together gives us an overround figure of just over 109% (2 x 54.54%). The percentage over and above 100% is the bookmakers potential profit on an event before costs.
A betting firm will compile odds in a golf event to ensure an overround figure is reached when percentage odds for each selection are totaled up.
Sell
A bet that the result will be lower than the quote offered by a spread betting firm. A bettor always Sells at the lower of the two prices offered in a spread quote. The only exception to this is in the Finishing Positions market (see Buy)
Spread
The spread is the difference between the price you pay to ‘Buy’ in a spread betting event and the price you pay to ‘Sell’. Say you were betting on an an 18 hole match bet between Ernie Els and Jay Haas. Els may be priced at 10-13 favourite. The spread in this case is 3 points. So if you fancy Els to win easily, you’d ‘buy’ Els at 13. If you think Haas will win, ‘Sell’ Els at 10.
Stake
The amount of money bet on an golf event. For fixed odds bookmakers (and backing selections on the betting exchanges) the sum wagered is the maximum that can be lost. However in spread betting, the stake is the amount per point bet. The bettor can therefore lose much more than the stake as the make-up multiplied by the stake will determine the final amount won or lost.
Stop-Loss
A system whereby a punter sets a pre-determined level for the maximum loss he is prepared to accept before closing his position. Spread Betting firms sometimes put a limit on the maximum make-up of an event. For instance, 72 hole match bets normally have a 25 shot stop-loss applied because the winning margin of one player over another can be significant.
Supremacy
How much the spread betting firm expects one golfer to beat another in a Match bet. A very simple but popular spread betting market.
Triple Bogey
Three over par for a hole. Taking seven on a par 4 etc.