Cash Out Golf Betting

As I write this in spring 2021, most of the big bookmakers have a Cash Out option available in some shape or form. Football markets are the most common options for Cash Out, however the option is slowly but surely spreading to other sports including golf.

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For those of you who’ve been betting on golf for a few years now, some may recall the now defunct bookmaker ‘Extrabet’ who were the first and only bookie at the time to allow their online customers to exit out of a bet before the result was known. Primarily a by-product of the fact that Extrabet offered spread betting on golf and other sports as their main business, Extrabet’s ‘Close Bet’ functionality was a popular option before they, as a business, were eventually swallowed up by SpreadEx in 2011 and with it the feature disappeared.

The other option for closing a bet early that’s been around for a few years now has been to trade on the exchanges such as betfair. The exchanges allow users to back and lay outcomes of sporting events to their heart’s content and, provided someone will match the bet that you propose, then this option provides by far the most flexibility across a massive range of markets.

Trading on the exchanges though does take some experience and mathematics, so canny bookmakers have been feverishly working on a more mainstream option for punters – hence the birth of ‘Cash Out’. If you want to learn more about betfair trading on golf then read our basic strategy guide here.

The simplest way to explain Cash Out for golf betting is that it allows you to effectively end the tournament from your own betting perspective as and when you choose, taking the bookmaker’s offer for how much your bet is ‘worth’ at that point in time.

Perhaps you’ve backed Rafa Cabrera-Bello or Emiliano Grillo and they’ve raced into a healthy lead for the umpteenth time, however you’re more than aware of their history of failing to convert strong positions – perhaps that’s a good time to consider taking the money and running.

Bookmakers who offer Cash Out on golf will make you an offer based on the current likelihood of your player winning (using their current odds) combined with how much you stand to win if you let the bet ride. So if your player is odds-on to win the tournament at the point you check your Cash Out offer then you’ll be offered far more than if he’s still 10/1.

The other consideration with all of this is that the bookmakers build a profit margin into the offer so it’s not an exact reflection of the value of your bet, more of a tempter than an exact calculation of what it’s truly worth. Think ‘Deal or No Deal’ and the banker trying to get you out of the chair with a reasonable, if not overly generous, offer.

The latest list of bookmakers offering Cash Out on golf as one of their features is as follows:

Due to the complexities of calculating each-way Cash Out offers, most bookies at this point in time only offer Cash Out on win-only bets. The exceptions to this rule are Paddy Power, Betfair and Bet Fred who are the first to offer Cash Out on each-way golf bets.

Betfred offer a full each-way Cash Out option on golf

A couple of examples of cashed out bets on golf sent in by our readers are below:

The first is from the Deutsche Bank Championship eventually won by Rickie Fowler with our canny punter cashing out just in the nick of time before Stenson found water and handed the title to golf’s previously (joint) most overrated player. The second image shows how betfair have fought back by offering a one-click cash out option on their exchange product  – Phil Mickelson led this event after round 1 however faded badly meaning this punter managed to produce a profit by cashing out early on in the event.

Experienced users of the exchanges will argue, with some validity it has to be said, that Cash Out in all its guises is simply a money-maker for the bookmakers. Punters will inevitably Cash Out what prove to be winning bets, sometimes way too early, and even when they don’t there’s a significant enough margin built into the offers to ensure that in the long run the bookmaker comes out on top.

However, for ease of use and for those who either can’t/don’t want to get involved with trading on the exchanges, then Cash Out presents an option that simply didn’t exist until recently and can, in the right circumstances, be used positively as our examples demonstrate. In addition, liquidity in some exchange markets can be pretty sparse, particularly on the lower-grade golf events, which can leave punters frustrated if they can’t get their lay bets matched which can ultimately turn a potential profit into a loss. Of course punters who place a bet with a bookmaker and want to lay it off on the exchanges can have the best of both worlds if they can raise sufficient funds to cover the lay bet, however this again relies on liquidity.

At this point in time, Cash Out golf options are limited to win-only bets with the exception of Betfred, Betfair and Paddy Power, giving them a strong advantage over their competitors. As this area develops further we’ll continue to update the table above to ensure you are as well informed as can be.

Got a winning Cash Out bet on golf? Got a view on Cash Out that we could quote and use in this article? Email us a screenshot/your thoughts to feedback@golfbettingsystem.co.uk and we may use it in future updates!

To find out what GBS readers think of some of the bookmakers featured on this page, read our golf bookmaker reviews page.