PGA Championship First Major to Score Sports Betting Partnership Via ESPN Bet
- 08 May 2024
- Gambling News
Of the four majors in golf, the PGA Championship is the first to establish a collaboration with a sportsbook operator for sports betting.
For the second major of the year in golf, the PGA of America and Penn Entertainment—the parent company of Penn Interactive and ESPN Bet—announced a sports betting relationship on Tuesday. The PGA Championship will take place at Louisville's Valhalla Golf Club from May 16–19.
The PGA of America's "Official Sports Betting Sponsor" for this major event will be ESPN Bet. Both at the prestigious Kentucky course the next week and during ESPN's broadcast coverage of the major tournament, there will be a big ESPN Bet presence.
Customers of ESPN Bet who are physically present at the PGA will have access to the ESPN Bet Members Lounge, which is situated next to the 13th hole. With its covered seating that offers views of the recently remodeled par-4 13th green, beverage service, exclusive ESPN Bet deals, and a virtual reality simulator of the hole, the VIP location will provide an exceptional level of hospitality.
Three-Year Agreement
Through the 2026 competition, ESPN Bet will continue to hold the title of "Official Sports Betting Sponsor" for the PGA Championship.
The event will be held in 2026 at Aronimink Golf Club south of Philadelphia and in 2021 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. Pennsylvania and North Carolina are two states that allow sports betting. Both have licenses for ESPN Bet.
ESPN's retail partnership with Ellis Park grants it a license to operate in Kentucky. The PGA Tour and Quail Hollow have partnered to grant the book a license in North Carolina. Penn owns multiple brick-and-mortar casinos in Pennsylvania under the Hollywood name, where ESPN Bet is licensed.
"With the PGA Championship set to take place in states where ESPN BET operates through 2026, this partnership provides us with a great opportunity to interact with and engage golf fans,” said Jason Birney, vice president of operations at Penn Interactive. “We look forward to accessing highly engaging touchpoints to bring ESPN Bet onto the course and into the PGA Championship broadcast on ESPN.”
While ESPN will broadcast Thursday and Friday morning shows and pre-CBS coverage on weekends until 1 pm ET, CBS owns the broadcast rights to the afternoon and evening shows on Saturday and Sunday.
The PGA of America deal's terms were not made public, but Penn Entertainment is still investing a lot of money in its marketing campaigns for ESPN Bet. The Pennsylvania-based casino operator, ESPN Bet, inked a $1.5 billion deal with Walt Disney's ESPN last year to leverage the sports broadcasting brand. ESPN Bet is a redesigned sports betting offering.
After backing out of its ownership of Barstool Sports—a poor financial decision that cost the company over $500 million—Penn switched to ESPN Bet.
PGA Probabilities
All eyes will be on world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, the most dominant player in the game right now, when the PGA Championship begins next week. Scheffler is not coming to this week's Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow; he and his wife Meredith are still keeping a close eye on the child.
Scheffler is without a doubt the PGA betting favorite if he participates. Right now, the 2024 Masters victor has a +350 chance of taking home the Wanamaker Trophy.
At +1200, Rory McIlroy is up next. +1400 is Jon Rahm's time. Ludvig Aberg, Brooks Koepka, and Xander Schauffele are the next at +1600.
