Sport books still get most of their action in golf from PGA Tour events. The European Tour just does not draw the same amount of interest at the Internet sportsbook and even the World Rankings reflect the difference. Players gain more points from playing in PGA Tour events than they do by playing in European tournaments.
Sport books will base some of their odds on the World Rankings. Those rankings take a lot of things into consideration including where the tournament was played. If it is a PGA Tour event then the players get more credit for playing in the tournament versus an event on the European Tour. A recent look at the PGA Tour and the European Tour shows that winners on the PGA Tour got an average of 52.51 points in the rankings compared with 42.54 points when winning an event on the European Tour.
The main golf season at the Internet sportsbook runs from February through September and during that time the PGA Tour events get more points. Last season, only twice during that time did a European event get more points than a PGA Tour event. The Irish Open got more points than the Texas Open in May and the BMW PGA Championship got more than the Bryon Nelson tournament. The most points awarded for a European tournament was for the Dubai World Championship. Internet sportsbook info shows that nine PGA Tournaments had at least that many points being offered.
So what does all this mean at sport books? It means if a player is playing on the PGA Tour he is going to be a better player on average than someone on the European Tour. Keep in mind as you look at sport books golf odds that Europe had 20 players ranked in the Top 50 in the world. Only five of those players were PGA Tour members. They were Paul Casey, Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Luke Donald. Rory McIlroy might be the next player that plays more on the PGA Tour as he will be a member this coming sport books season. The top three players in the world last sport books year were Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker.
It will be an interesting season in golf at the Internet sportsbook with Tiger Wood sitting out the early part of the schedule and perhaps more. That will really open up the World Rankings and the golf odds at the sport books for players like Phil Mickelson, Harrington, McIlroy and others.