A new golf betting platform called “SuperLive” seeks to capitalize on the popularity of golf as a wagering sport by offering a technology that creates more in-game betting options.
The project is the brainchild of Martin de Knijff, a professional sports bettor, World Poker Tour champion, and competitive bridge player from Gothenburg, Sweden, now residing in Las Vegas.
De Knijff told Golf.com that he will be launching “SuperLive” golf betting in the United States this fall. The game can produce odds shot-by-shot simultaneously for multiple players in betting groups to create numerous in-tournament wagering options.
Such “in-game” wagering continues to present the fastest growing segment of the sports betting marketplace, operators say.
The SuperLive app can produce up to 5,000 separate betting lines during each golf event, and is already proving a success for several major sportsbooks in legal European markets.
Golf Presents Sports Betting Opportunity
After years of following other major US sports leagues in opposition to wagering on its events, the PGA Tour has shifted course and now fully supports the activity.
New legal markets are now available in New Jersey, Delaware, and Mississippi, with Rhode Island and West Virginia ready to follow suit in coming weeks. According to some projections, as many as 32 states are on track to fully legalize sports betting within the next five years.
Although golf attracts only a small portion of the of the billions of dollars said to now be bet mostly illegally on sports in this country every year, even just a fraction of that kind of betting action would be significant.
“You don’t know what you don’t know, and that’s certainly true of golf,” de Knijff told Golf.com. “But one thing that’s certain is that golfers are inherently bettors. They just haven’t been properly marketed to. Once golfers start to learn about the betting opportunities that exist, you have a totally different ball game.”
PGA Tour Vice President and Assistant General Counsel David Miller, speaking to an sport media innovation conference in June, said the professional golf organization has no objection to betting on its events, especially mobile and online wagering, but does advocate receiving a fee for that ability. Miller further identified mobile wagering “as one of the main things the PGA Tour is looking at in legislation that we’re advocating for.”
Data Cost of Doing Business
It’s unclear if new gambling start-ups offering in-game golf betting will, by necessity, be forced to purchase an official data stream from the PGA Tour.
Although, it may be appealing for bettors to wager, for instance, on which player in a group smoked the longest drive, sports betting observers note that there has to be an “official” calculation by some governing body, such as the PGA Tour, to determine the exact distance of various shots. Having an official, accepted, and swiftly reported source of such data will be crucial in the success of SuperLive, they believe and is crucial to the profitability of in-game betting.
The major U.S. sports leagues are currently making such an argument by asking sportsbooks to pay for a league-authorized data stream so “official” data can be used to determine if in-game wagers are winners or losers.
Most sportsbook operators believe having a sports league provide such official data would create a monopoly situation through which they would be forced to pay whatever fee the league desired.