Golf gambling to be at tournaments 'next year'
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan says that gambling will be at tournaments 'from next year'.
The PGA Tour has announced that gambling will be at golf tournaments at some point next year in the hopes of attracting new audiences and making golf more exciting throughout the long tournament days.
Golf has been preparing for legalised sports betting for a number of years and gaming restrictions are being relaxed across the country.
The PGA Tour is currently in Japan for the very first time for the ZOZO Championship, where PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan spoke to France24 to share the news.
"You'll start to see product in the market place next year," said Monahan.
The total prize purse for the ZOZO Championship is a huge $9.75 million, the same as it was last week for the CJ Cup, where Justin Thomas took home the winning share on $1.755 million, with Danny Lee still taking home over a million dollars for second place.
"It's all about engagement," said Monahan, who believes that introducing gambling at tournaments will allow spectators to stay interested for longer, as spending a day watching golf at a tournament can last up to 12 hours.
"When done right, it gives fans the opportunity to engage with your sport over a longer period of time and have more interest in what's happening across the entire player field."
"It's legalised in a lot of international markets and we've put the right systems in place, both in terms of an integrity programme and monitoring activity," explained Monahan, who is aware that golf betting will need monitoring to stop match-fixing scandals occurring.
"As it is becoming legalised by state in the US, you can either participate or not, and we feel smarter to be participating... versus let others control it.
"Once you start to participate, you can eliminate negative bets. We've done a ton of work to make certain that that's the position we're in.
"I think when we come forward, you'll see that we've taken significant steps to address that. We're going to participate in a thoughtful way and I'm really comfortable with that."
