Eight years ago, the PGA Tour still banned the use of cell phones at tournaments. Now, with phone use fully legal, it is beginning to embrace mobile sports betting. Non-fans might now be brought into the game by the promise of winning real money. And fans out on the Tour’s courses in states where gambling on sports has been legalized are even able to place in-game bets on the action in front of them.
“We view gaming in general as an opportunity for fan engagement … for us to expand our audience to people who aren’t currently engaging in our sport is tremendous,” explains Andy Levinson, the PGA Tour’s SVP of tournament administration.
Levinson believes that golf is perfect for in-play betting because there can be as many as 72 balls in play at any moment whereas most other sports have just one. Each of those balls is already tracked using lasers and radars via the Tour’s ShotLink system, and metrics collected from every shot are set to power a growth into the global betting market.
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