Bettor Wins Nearly $80,000 After Shane Lowry Wins The Open
- Shane Lowry cruised to victory at the 148th Open at Royal Portrush, shooting 15 under par
- Lowry’s odds of winning The Open were as long as 80-1 during the week leading up to the tournament
- One bettor won nearly $80,000 with Lowry’s triumph on the weekend
With the 2019 Open Championship being played at Royal Portrush, a course located in Northern Ireland, Rory McIlroy, who hails from Northern Ireland, was seen as the favorite to hoist the Claret Jug. Of course, Brooks Koepka wasn’t far behind, and the two were followed by the usual suspects atop the odds board – Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose etc.
If you managed to make it beyond the top 30 on the board, you would have come across another Irishman: Shane Lowry, who’s previous best finish at a major was T2nd at the 2016 US Open and only had three other top ten finishes in majors since 2010.
At least one bettor saw value in the 80-1 odds that were offered on Lowry and put down $525 on July 16. The very next day, though, they decided that wasn’t enough, and hit it again with another $498.75, this time at +7550 odds.
Big Bet on Shane Lowry to Win The Open
| Date | Money Risked on Lowry Winning The Open | Odds | Money Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 16 | $525 | +8000 | $42,000 |
| July 17 | $498.75 | +7550 | $37,655.63 |
| $1,023.75 | $79,655.63 |
In total, the bettor walked away with $79,655.63 from his $1,023.75 risk – certainly not a bad weekend.
This bettor must have been feeling pretty good about their wager after Lowry came out and shot an opening round 67, just one stroke behind the leader, JB Holmes.
The strong first round sent Lowry’s odds to win The Open from an average of +6700 to +1500. The Irishman followed that up with another 4-under round on Friday, putting him in a tie for the lead with Holmes heading into the weekend, resulting in his average odds shortening even further to +730.
https://twitter.com/leeofthemail/status/1153241611217920000?s=20
Lowry’s play only continued getting stronger, as he shot an 8-under 63 on Saturday, giving him the tournament-lead at -16. With a four-stroke lead over Tommy Fleetwood, who sat in second entering the final round, his odds to win sat at -180 before play started Sunday morning.
The greatest walk in golf in front of the greatest fans 👏 What a week here in Northern Ireland #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/CxbmyaaUrE
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 21, 2019
It’s one thing to lay down a couple of bucks on a major longshot to win an event. But it takes a lot of cojones – or potentially just a huge bankroll – to risk $1,000 on an 80-1 outcome, especially when that player only had four professional wins since 2010.
After working in TV, Matt turned his focus towards numbers, specifically odds. He has been with us since 2016 and serves as SBD's Editor-in-Chief, credited with creating our futures trackers, SBD's score predictor, SBD Sharp, and his own model for calculating NFL SOS, among other products.
