This story was originally published by Dead Spin
Scottie Scheffler has yet to finish better than a tie for eighth at an Open Championship, but that isn’t stopping the public from heavily backing the world’s No. 1-ranked player to win the final major of 2024 at Royal Troon.
Scheffler is the clear favorite at most all sportsbooks, including BetMGM, where the two-time Masters champion opened at +1000 to win The Open. Those odds have been driven down to +500 with Scheffler backed by the most total bets (14.3 percent) and money (23.7 percent) to win this week.
He is the book’s biggest liability ahead of former Open champions Collin Morikawa and Rory McIlroy. Scheffler has also drawn the most bets to be the first-round leader and to finish in the top five.
“There’s been relentless support for the World Number 1 Scottie Scheffler at BetMGM, but we’re happy with our position with him at +500 currently,” lead golf trader Matt Wall said in a statement. “Big losers for us include Brooks Koepka, Tony Finau and Akshay Bhatia.
“Needless to say, we are hoping for strong performances by the European players this weekend at the British Open.”
Koepka, a five-time major winner whose best previous finish at the Open is a T4 in 2019, has been backed by 1.2 percent of the money as his odds have held steady at +4000. He has also been the third-most popular play among LIV Golf players in the field behind Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith.
They’re all chasing Scheffler, who is already the first player to win six times in a single season since Tiger Woods in 2009. The last player to win seven times? That would also be Woods, way back in 2007.
Scheffler is also at +500 at DraftKings, where he leads the field with 16 percent of the money backing him to win. He is also first with 8 percent of the money supporting him at +1600 to be the first-round leader and a whopping 30 percent of the money at +240 to be the top American finisher.
BetRivers is offering a better potential payout on a Scheffler victory at +550. That is ahead of McIlroy at +750 and Xander Schauffele at +1200.
–Field Level Media
