British bookies could take bath
LONDON (AP) - Tiger Woods has beaten everyone else. Next may
come Britain's bookies.
With a flood of bets coming in on him, odds in Britain have
dropped to 4-1 on Woods winning this week's U.S. Open at Congressional
Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland.
The odds on Woods keep falling. They started out at 20-1 and
fell to 4-1 Tuesday after the bookmakers Ladbrokes took a $16,400
bet on Woods.
"If Tiger wins this week it will be an awful week for
bookmakers around Britain, none of us will escape," Ian Wassell
of Ladbrokes said. "If he wins the Grand Slam the bill will
run to millions and watching this season's majors will be no fun
at all if you're a bookie."
Bets are coming in on Woods at an unprecedented rate, Wassell
said.
"There has never been a situation quite like this, even
when Jack Nicklaus was 2-1 favorite for the (British) Open back
in the 70's the sums involved were minute in comparison."
"Woods has attracted huge betting support among golf fans,
many of whom had never been tempted to place a bet before,"
Wassell added. "They have forced his U.S. Open odds from
20-1 to 4-1 and his Grand Slam odds from 5000-1 to 20-1."
Wassell - for selfish reasons - has his own favorites, Brits
Colin Montgomerie and Nick Faldo. Faldo is 16-1 and Montgomerie
is 20-1.
"You can be sure that everyone at Ladbrokes will be cheering
extra hard for a British win this week," Wassell said.
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