Sportsbooks talk Masters betting: ‘Rory has been more popular than Scheffler so far’

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The 2025 Masters tees off on Thursday, and one golfer who is still looking for his first Masters win is Rory McIlroy. He comes into the tournament scorching hot, as he hasn’t finished worse than 17th in 2025 and outlasted J.J. Spaun in a playoff to take home The Players Championship win in mid-March. Only two-time Masters champion Scottie Scheffler (+450) has shorter odds at BetMGM to win this week than McIlroy at +650.

The latter, however, has been attracting more attention recently from bettors.

“Rory has been more popular than Scheffler so far,” said Johnny Avello, the race and sports operations director at DraftKings. “I think the action on Rory is due to current form and also the course. It’s a long course, and it’s probably going to be dry there, so the long hitters certainly have an advantage. Now it will come down to putting, and Rory has had times where his putter has failed him. But lately he’s looked really good, so it’s not a surprise bettors are playing him.”

At BetMGM, McIlroy is leading the way in both bets (10.6 percent) and money (14.8 percent) to win the prestigious major, as his outright odds have dropped from a +1200 opener to his current price of +650. He has also received the most money to finish in first at both Hard Rock Bet and DraftKings, with one DraftKings bettor putting down $10,000 on McIlroy at +650 for a potential $65,000 win.

Sam Cooney, lead golf trader at Circa Sports, shared that McIlroy has been getting the most bets since Circa put up a new Masters futures pool this week, where bets only count if the golfer does, in fact, tee off. In the months leading up to the major, where all bets can get action (even if the golfer doesn’t play), Ludvig Åberg was the most popular wager for Circa’s Masters futures. Åberg’s odds reached as low as +1000 at Circa because of early popularity before drifting back up to +2300.

Meanwhile, Scheffler still ranks second in bets (8.5 percent) and handle (12.1 percent) at BetMGM, but his popularity among Masters bettors has dipped a little compared to previous years.

“By his own incredible standards, 2025 has been a quiet year for Scottie Scheffler,” said Matt Wall, senior trader at BetMGM. “Yet, he still remains the clear favorite this week, even though there has been little movement in his odds. I think many golf fans may feel there is more value elsewhere. I would be very surprised if he was our worst result when they tee off on Thursday.”

Of course, one prominent absence looms large ahead of the season’s first major. Ninety-five golfers will compete for the legendary green jacket at Augusta this week, but Tiger Woods will not participate in his first Masters since 2021.

Following his unforgettable fifth Masters victory in 2019, his best finish since that momentous moment has been a T38. That has not slowed down the Tiger action, as he’s served as the top liability at many sportsbooks for the Masters in recent years. How will that impact betting action without him at Augusta this time around?

“I think a lot of the Tiger money is moving to Phil [Mickelson],” said Anthony Salleroli, lead golf trader at Caesars Sportsbook. “Phil would always be second to Tiger in terms of Masters liability, but he takes the throne now. If it’s not Phil, the casuals will find someone else to bet on besides Tiger just because it’s still the Masters. But we’re missing all that Tiger reporting and footage, which would directly translate into handle.”

Mickelson enters the Masters way down the betting board after finishing sixth at LIV Golf Miami last week. He also secured a third-place finish at LIV Golf Hong Kong three outings ago in early March. At Caesars, he’s moved from 150-1 to 75-1 to win the Masters over the past week. Mickelson is currently +9000 at BetMGM and has received the 19th-most bets (1.2 percent of tickets) to win his fourth green jacket. Then there’s one DraftKings bettor who laid $500 on Mickelson back when he had +20000 (200-1) odds for a potential win of $100,000.

Surprisingly, Jon Rahm is one golfer near the top of the odds board who hasn’t been generating as much action. Rahm opened at +1200 at BetMGM and is now tied for third on the betting board at +1400 with Collin Morikawa. Among the six golfers with odds of +2000 or shorter at BetMGM — Scheffler, McIlroy, Rahm, Morikawa, Bryson DeChambeau (+1600) and Åberg (+2000) — Rahm is the only one who doesn’t rank in the top five in bets (2.7 percent, ninth) or money (3.4 percent, eighth) to win the event at the sportsbook.

Over at Daily Fantasy Sports operator PrizePicks, the second most popular pick among users for Round 1 of the Masters is “Rahm to finish with fewer than four birdies” — only trailing the market “Dustin Johnson less than 72.5 strokes” (Johnson to shoot 72 or lower for Thursday).

“With Rahm being a top-10 player in the world and former Masters champion, I expected more money on him,” Cooney said. “I think there’s a little bias with the guys that are on LIV, and his performance here last year was not that great, so that turned people off of him. Rahm hasn’t played badly on the LIV tour; he’s actually been in the top 10 in every event he’s played. It’s just been a while since people have seen Rahm win an actual golf tournament.”

Quick-hitters

• How about another wild parlay over at Hard Rock Bet? One bettor placed $5 on a five-leg parlay at +2699900 odds and is just one away from turning that into $135,000: DeChambeau to win the Masters. The other legs that cashed were Scheffler to win Olympic gold, Spain men’s soccer to win Olympic gold, Ohio State to win the college football national title and Josh Allen to win NFL MVP.

• There are also some extreme long-shots that have racked up major liability at a couple of sportsbooks. At Circa, one large bet on Matt McCarty swung the golfer’s odds from 775-1 to 225-1 and still remains the sportsbook’s most significant liability.

• At DraftKings, amateur Noah Kent is the top Masters liability. He currently sits at +150000 (1500-1). Kent is a member of the University of Florida golf team, so it would be quite a week for the Gators if he could make a run at Augusta.

• The biggest potential payout at DraftKings for any Masters outright wager is one on Patrick Reed. One bettor has $2,550 on the 2018 Masters winner at +10000 (100-1) odds for a potential $255,000 win.

(Photo of Rory McIlroy: Richard Heathcote / Getty Images)

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