How we Choose the Best Betting Sites for the Ryder Cup
In terms of sheer spectacle, nothing in golf can touch the Ryder Cup. The Europe vs USA format, the patriotic fervour, the fact that the golfers are playing purely to establish their team’s superiority rather than for any prize money – all of that adds up to golf’s equivalent of all-out war. From the fourball and foursome matches to the hard-fought duels of the singles, it’s riveting from start to finish. But what if you want to bet on the Ryder Cup?
Well, there are countless sites you can join for some Ryder Cup betting action. At Compare.bet, we make it easier for you to pick the best UK bookies, because we assess the sites according to a set of criteria. Here are some of the factors we look out for.
Bonuses
These days, punters are spoilt for choice with welcome bonuses. In fact, there are so many bonuses out there that it can cause information overload. We cut through the noise by laying out the various incentives on offer right now, and also look at the on-going promos offered after you sign up.
Betting Markets
Wagering on which team will win is only one of the many ways you can bet on the Ryder Cup. The best UK bookies offer a wide range of other markets, on all aspects of the tournament. This makes for an engrossing, eclectic betting experience.
Banking Options
From bank cards to super-convenient e-wallet services, there are plenty of ways to deposit and withdraw when you’re betting online. We factor the options in when recommending bookies, so you can be almost certain of having a banking method that suits you.
User Experience
The breadth of betting markets, bonuses and banking options are all crucial to anyone’s choice of bookie. But the general feel and personality of the site matter as well. We take into account how easy the interface is to use, and how accessible the customer service team is.
Licensing
When weighing up UK betting sites on Compare.bet, you’re safe in the knowledge that all of them are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. This means that, whichever site you join, your personal details will be kept encrypted and secure, and the bookie will take responsible gambling seriously.
Betting Markets
As you might expect from an event as big and popular as the Ryder Cup, there’s no shortage of betting markets to choose from. Here are some you can try your luck with.
Outright winner
Who will win – the USA or Europe? It’s the question that inspires the rowdiest, most passionate crowds of any golf tournament, and you can have your say with the outright winner betting market.
Match bets
The Ryder Cup is made up of very different component matches – fourballs, foursomes and singles. With match bets, you can bet on the outcomes of these individual skirmishes, which means betting on either pairs of golfers (with fourballs and foursomes) or individual golfers (with singles).
Points bets
Points are all important in the Ryder Cup. Which golfers will rack up the most points for their team? Different players will be picked to play different numbers of matches, making this a particularly fascinating market to bet on.
Score bets
Another popular Ryder Cup betting market involves predicting the scores for individual matches. Will Team Europe’s pairing triumph by two strokes, say? Perhaps Team USA will win by one?
Player specials
UK’s top betting sites will offer specific specials on different players, letting you bet on whether they’ll score more than another golfer, say. The options are almost endless when the Ryder Cup rolls around.
Bet on the Ryder Cup, live
Betting on the Ryder Cup doesn’t mean you have to make your mind up on selections before tee off. Actually, many punters prefer to wait till play commences before placing wagers using in-play betting sites. More than just an exciting way to wager, these kinds of live bets can provide you with better returns. For example, if a pair of golfers are regarded as the favourites going into a fourball match, but then start to falter, the odds may shift to provide you with a heftier profit if the favourites do come good in the end.
Get an Early Payout on Ryder Cup 2023 Betting
Being able to bail out of a bet with some winnings in your pocket, even before the outcome is clear, may sound like a punter’s fantasy. But cash out options offered by the top UK betting sites do allow you to do just that. How does it work? Well, if one of your bets looks like it won’t win, and you don’t want to chance it any longer, you can opt to cash out before the match is over. That way, you’ll still get some amount of money, which the bookmaker will calculate according to the in-play odds and your initial stake. It won’t be as big as a winning return, but it’s still better than a loss.
Combine Your Picks
Want to bet on more than one selection? You might want to try an accumulator, or acca, bet. With accas, you can put a bunch of bets on one slip, meaning that winning them all will lead to a larger return (because all the individual odds will be multiplied together). There’s just one snag: if any selection loses, the whole acca loses too.
There is a potential silver lining here, though, and that’s acca insurance. With this option, the bookmaker will return your stake in the form of free bets if one of the selections kills the entire acca. Which will certainly sweeten any losing situation.
Boost Your Bankroll
Many punters will immediately check out what welcome bonuses are on offer from various betting sites in the UK. It’s a hotly competitive field, which is good news for you. Here are some bonuses to look out for.
Matched Deposit Bonuses
Matched deposits will often be advertised something like, “100% up to £100”. What this means is that any amount you initially deposit up to £100 will be matched exactly by the betting site. Deposit £40? You’ll have a total of £80 to bet with. These bonuses are a great way to get the ball rolling, but do check the terms and conditions so you’re clear on what the wagering and minimum odds requirements are, and if there’s a tight time limit on meeting those requirements.
Free Bets for Ryder Cup 2023
Many of the best betting sites in the UK offer free bets as an incentive for signing up. With these, you’ll generally have to bet a certain minimum amount in order to unlock free bet credits. So, it could be that betting £10 with qualifying odds will get you £10 in free bets, paid out as a lump or in smaller increments. As with any bonus, check if wagering requirements and other strings are attached.
Take Advantage of Promos
Welcome bonuses are great, but the top UK bookies also make their existing customers feel valued with a variety of on-going promotions. Here are a few that are widely available.
Money-back Offers
You can’t expect to win all your bets, whether on the Ryder Cup or any other sporting events. But with money back offers, you can at least avoid losing your whole stake. With this kind of promo, the bookie will give a losing stake back in free bet form. There will be a limit in place on how much you can recoup, which is something to bear in mind when placing larger bets. Money-back offers are a great form of damage control and also make it feel less risky to take a chance on underdogs.
Enhanced Odds
There’s nothing like a mammoth sporting event like the Ryder Cup to get people betting in massive numbers. Betting sites will often offer enhanced odds in a bid to attract punters their way. This means you might be presented with artificially lucrative odds on favourites, which sounds too good to be true but is actually par for the course with boosted odds promos.
Payment Options
The top UK bookies like to make things as easy and convenient as possible for their customers. That means there will usually be a variety of ways you can bank with them, including:
- Visa and Mastercard debit cards
- PayPal
- Neteller
- Skrill
- Paysafecard
- Bank transfer
PayPal's a great e-wallet option, offering additional security layers, a great mobile app and speedy payments.
Neteller features an e-wallet and prepaid card service on one platform, meaning you can manage your funds in the way that suits you best.
Paysafecard's prepaid card and PIN system makes budgeting simple and means you don't have to disclose your personal details.
Skrill is renowned for its speed and convenience, as well as its security functions and ease of use.
Place Your Bets Anytime, Anywhere
Betting on the go is one of the great perks of using online bookies rather than bricks-and-mortar establishments. With a few taps on your smartphone or tablet, you can wager just as you would on a computer.
There are a couple of ways mobile betting sites in the UK operate. The most widely available method to punters is to access the web app. This simply involves logging onto the URL on your phone or tablet’s browser, and betting as normal. The main advantage with this method is you won’t have to download any software.
Alternatively, many of the top UK betting sites have native apps you can download from Google Play or the App Store. With a native app, you can have a flutter without having to bother opening your browser, and you can also receive push notifications to let you know whenever the latest promos are available.
Betting Tips for the Ryder Cup
Betting can never be free from risk, but doing some homework before the Ryder Cup can help you make the wisest possible bets when the time comes. This is no ordinary golf tournament, as it involves teams playing in different formats over three days. So it’s essential to get a handle on how the Ryder Cup works, and how well suited the various golfers are to the types of matches. How well will the matched pairs in the fourballs and foursomes work together? Which players have form for this style of golf?
Speaking of form, look into how well the golfers have been playing in recent tournaments. This will tell you a lot more than simply consulting the official rankings, which only provide a general overview of the current golf landscape. Punters should also check how the golfers have fared on the specific course chosen for the Ryder Cup – have they been successful here before? Does the course play to their strengths or weaknesses?
More than any other golf tournament, the Ryder Cup can inspire patriotic passion and pride, and – if you’re European or from the States – it can be tempting to simply back “your” side. But for the greatest chance of success, bet with your head and not your heart.
Other Major Golf Tournaments
The Ryder Cup may be a prestigious competition, but it’s not one of the four Majors. Those are golf’s most prestigious tournaments and kick off with the Masters at Augusta in April. The next Major is the PGA Championship in May, which is followed by the US Open in June and the Open Championship (aka, the British Open) in July.
There are plenty of other big-name tournaments to bet on, too. These include:
- The Omega Dubai Desert Classic (Emirates Golf Club, January)
- The Players Championship (TPC at Sawgrass, March)
- The Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open (various courses, July)
- The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship (various courses, September)
- The WGC-HSBC Champions (Sheshan Golf Club, October)
Looking Back at the Ryder Cup
Taking place every two years, the Ryder Cup has a long history that stems back to 1926, when a group of American golfers played a match against a British team in the run-up to that year’s Open Championship. This was made an official event the following year, with the winner’s cup donated by Samuel Ryder, a garden seed magnate who’d developed a passion for golf in his 50s.
Originally restricted to players representing either the United States or Britain and Ireland, the rules changed in 1979 to allow players from continental Europe to join in and challenge American dominance of the Ryder Cup. Team Europe was born, heralding renewed excitement about the Ryder Cup.
One of the most famous moments in its history came in 1969, when American golfing titan Jack Nicklaus conceded a missable putt to British great Tony Jacklin, resulting in a draw. Picking up Jacklin’s marker, Nicklaus displayed legendary sportsmanship by saying, “I don’t think you would have missed it, but I wasn’t going to give you the chance, either.”
The tournament has also seen some remarkable comebacks from flagging teams, which would have paid dividends to clever bettors. In 1999, the Americans surged unexpectedly back from a 4-point deficit to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in the final round. The situation was reversed in 2012, when the Europeans mounted a bold comeback on the final day, beating the Americans who required just 4.5 points to win. It was an astonishing win dubbed the Miracle at Medinah.
Ready to Bet on the Ryder Cup?
Whether you’re cheering on the Americans or Europeans, the Ryder Cup is a uniquely exhilarating event in the world of golf. All set to bet? Check out our recommended sites and sign up!
Bookmakers price competitively, so the odds you’ll see at different bookmakers will often be similar. Where you’ll find the difference, however, is at bookies offering enhanced and boosted odds. It can pay to shop around and find the best deal when you fancy a flutter
You’ll be able to combine markets like an outright winner with outright winners from other sporting competitions, however, many bookies will prevent you from combining bets on the same event, or combining outright markets with events like an individual Premier League game, for example. If you combine ineligible bets on your betslip, they will simply appear as singles, rather than combine as a multiple.
Placing a bet on an uncertain outcome, such as the Ryder Cup, means nothing is guaranteed. So you should take any betting tips with a grain of salt. While tipsters can give you a nudge in the right direction, even the best tipsters aren’t going to get it right all the time, that’s why we recommend doing your own research to inform your decisions at the bookies.
Compare.bet only reviews and ranks operators licensed by the UKGC, which requires all licensed operators to follow strict regulatory guidelines in order to provide a safe and fair environment for gamblers. These measures include, among others, compelling licensed bookies to provide industry-standard encryption for all customer payments, protecting you in the unlikely event that your details get into the wrong hands. If you’re ever in doubt about your operator’s licence, the UKGC’s public register contains details for every active licensee. Your funds are not legally protected if you play with an unlicensed site, so be sure to check before putting your hard-earned money on the line.
