Golf Betting Strategy Guide: How to Profit with Extra Place Offers -

Successful golf betting is about finding a mathematical edge – using extra place offers makes this very simple…

So in our article this week, we break down how to turn golf into a consistently profitable pursuit. Knowing how to do it changes everything (literally).

Leveraging “extra place offers” against other bets on the betting exchange brings high-value profits. However, understanding how to do this requires a little extra context first…

Understanding Extra Place Offers…

An extra place offer is where a betting company pay out on more finishing positions than usual in a golf tournament.

To help understanding, take a look at the image below!

Example: instead of paying for the top 4 finishers in a standard golf market, the bookie pays out for the top 5, 6, or even more. These offers repeatedly feature in major golf tournaments, such as The Open or The Masters. Their objective? to attract new and repeat custom.

Our advantage comes from the discrepancy between payouts and betting exchange terms. On a betting exchange, the “place” market remains fixed based on the standard number of places. This inconsistency allows golfers finishing in an “extra place” to win both the back bet placed at the bookmaker and the lay bet placed on the exchange’s place market.

The result? A significant profit is locked in (just take a look here).

How Extra Place Offers Work in Golf:

To illustrate how this works in practice, let’s break it down:

Placing the Back Bet (At the Bookmaker):
Unibet is offering Wilco Nienaber at odds of 81.00 to finish in the top 6, which takes advantage of a bookmaker’s “extra place” promotion.
Placing Lay Bets (At the Exchange):
You place two lay bets at the exchange. One covers the golfer not winning outright (“win market”)at odds of 70.00, and the other covers the golfer not finishing in the standard top 5 positions (“place market”) at odds of 15.00. The betting exchange terms do not recognise the bookmaker’s extra place, creating a window of opportunity.
Profit Opportunity with Extra Places:
If Wilco Nienaber finishes exactly in 6th place (the extra position offered by the bookmaker but not covered by the exchange), both your place back bet and place lay bet win. This is the ideal outcome, yielding a substantial profit of £172. Any other outcome will result in a profit of around £2.50 as this is also an arbitrage bet.

Why This Golf Betting Strategy Works (Math Behind It)

Achieving long-term success in golf betting with extra place offers is rooted in mathematics. The strategy works due to “expected value” (EV). By consistently placing bets with a positive EV, you ensure profitability over time, even if individual outcomes naturally involve some variance. In our example, we used an arbitrage bet where the back odds were higher than the lay odds, however, this does not always need to be the case in order to make bets that will win long term.

Let me explain…

Here’s what makes this mathematically favourable:

Low Risk, High Reward: Qualifying losses are typically small or null compared to the payouts when an extra place hits.
Implied Odds Advantage: Tools like the Extra Place Matcher, which we used in the example,e calculate implied odds, helping you focus on high-value bets with favorable profit potential.

For instance, that’s an expected value of 400/1 — so even one win every 300 bets turns a profit. This means that even if you only succeed once in 400 tries, you would still break even. Any outcome better than this results in profit. If the golfer you are backing is priced odds of 71.00 win the tournament, then they are likely to be shorter odds the 401.00 to finish 6th place in the tournament.

This ultimately means we are making a bet that holds a lot of value!

Matched Betting vs Value Betting in Golf…

This strategy enables two different approaches.

Matched Betting – This is the method explained above, by backing and laying selections, you turn this strategy into a very low-risk way of making money. The downside to this strategy is you must have the funds to cover the lay bets in your exchange, we would estimate a bank of at least £500 in your exchange.
Value Betting – The second approach does not require you to place lays bets on the exchange. These extra place bets have value and in the long run consistently backing value leads to long-term profits. This means you can place these bets and the expectation is that you will win over a big sample. The downside to this strategy is variance and enduring losing periods.

Using Software to Maximise Success

Betting software enables you to use this strategy efficiently and effectively, without having to do all the maths yourself. When working with extra place offers, there is a clear standout

Extra Place Matcher (OddsMonkey):

This software aggregates odds from over 60 bookmakers, compares it with the betting exchange odds and highlights the best opportunities across different markets. It also calculates qualifying losses, potential profits, and implied odds, removing the need for manual calculations. Ultimately it reduces hours of work into something that you can use in a few minutes and place large value bets.

Practical Tips for Golf Betting…

Here are some simple but effective tips you can use to enhance results:

Start Small: Begin with lower stakes to get comfortable with the process.
Focus on Major Tournaments: Large events like The Masters or Ryder Cup often come with more extra place offers and high-value opportunities.
Pick the Right Bets: Look for golfers with close back and lay odds for both the win and place parts. Using a tool like the Extra Place Matcher streamlines this process.
Bankroll Management: Betting on extra places can tie up your funds for several days (the duration of the tournament). Ensure you allocate your bankroll wisely to avoid overextending yourself.
Test Different Strategies: Once confident, you might experiment with covering multiple golfers in the same tournament to diversify your chances while controlling your total qualifying loss.

Conclusion:

My past experiences show that extra place offers in the golf betting markets are the easiest way to start making money from golf. The genuine mathematical edge delivers consistent, long-term profits because it beats real-world value. It mirrors what the bookies do themselves!!

New or experienced, this golf betting strategy offers a blend of low-risk, high-reward betting. If you want to take a straight-up backing-only approach, it’s a strategy with a mathematical edge.

If you want to get started, we recommend using Oddsmonkey, which offers the best software for extra place betting on golf and many other profitable strategies.