Whether you love watching Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson giving high fives or if you care about which millionaire golfer has the best celebration dance, the Ryder Cup 2018 is upon us. The Ryder Cup is a golf team match play event held every other year between players representing the United States and Europe. Typically, the best players from each continent will tee off against each other starting with fourball and foursomes on Friday & Saturday, and then singles matches on Sunday. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, will all be fist pumping and cheering along with fans.
Below is my review of Ryder Cup odds for 2018.
| Bodog | Sports Interaction | CoinRoster | |
| USA | 1.90 | 1.68 | 1.90 |
| Europe | 2.20 | 2.34 | 2.20 |
| Draw | 12.00 | 13.00 | 12.00 |
| Spread | -6.42% | -9.95% | -6.42% |
The “Spread” row listed in the table above shows the theoretical vig implied in the odds. The math for this is pretty straight-forward, take 1 divided by the decimals odds, then sum the total of all odds. e.g. 6.42% = 1- [(1/1.9)+(1/2.2)+(1/12)]. From the data in the table above, Bodog & CoinRoster have the best odds overall because their combined implied spread is 6.42% compared to 9.95% for Sports Interaction, even though the odds Sports Interaction is posting for Europe and the Draw are better, the low odds provided to USA make up the difference.
USA is the favorite this year, but only marginally. Europe are the slight underdogs. A $1 bet on USA will pay $1.90 if they win, but a $1 bet on Europe will pay $2.20. This makes sense considering USA has a deeper bench of the world’s top golfers including Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson. Europe does have the best player in the world right now in Justin Rose, as well as Rory McIlroy, but if the weakest players on the USA might be Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson, Europe has to compete with lower ranked players such as Thorbjorn Oleson. Europe has a few cagey veterans such as Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, and Ian Poulter, but those players are not at the top of their game’s and it will be tough for them to compete head to head with the likes of bombers such as Brooks Koepka.
To compare the odds from a variety of sports books, click here for Odds Checker golf.
