Golf and Sports Betting to Converge at Your Local Driving Range

BetMGM and Topgolf have struck a deal

Golfing
Scotty McCreery attends the ACM Lifting Lives TOPGOLF Tee-Off at TOPGOLF on April 06, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jason Kempin/Getty Images for ACM

One could say that there’s an element of gambling every time a person tries their hand at a sport. Whether you’re new to it or just getting practice, there’s a kind of wager placed that one’s form will be good, or that no accidents will happen over the course of one’s daily exercise. When it comes to visiting a driving range, there’s a metaphorical gamble that happens there: that you’ll get your money’s worth and that you’ll hit most balls in something resembling a straight line.

We’re a lot closer to a day when literal betting could take place alongside metaphorical betting at some of the nation’s driving ranges. At Sportico, Eben Novy-Williams reports that Topgolf and BetMGM signed a deal to add BetMGM’s sports betting capabilities to Topgolf locations. This only applies to locations in states where gambling is legal; Sportico’s article cites a number of cities, including Nashville and Detroit, where this will apply.

“It’s very much state by state, so it’s important to find partnerships that can scale alongside our own expansion,” Kyle Wachtel, BetMGM’s head of partnerships, told Sportico.

Topgolf isn’t the only BetMGM collaboration announced in recent years. In 2019, BetMGM partnered with Buffalo Wild Wings, leading to a kind of sports betting/hot wings cross-pollination. In both cases, the partnerships make a lot of sense — if you have an existing audience with an interest in sports, having an option to bet on events is a logical next step.

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