What To Expect From 'The Match' When Woods, Manning, Mickelson, Brady Tee Off

Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning will compete this Sunday against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady in "The Match: Champions for Charity." The winners will take home serious bragging rights — and the proceeds benefit coronavirus relief efforts.

WarnerMedia and the players are making a charitable donation totaling $10 million to benefit COVID-19 relief, according to WarnerMedia. The match will be simulcast at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, May 24 on TNT, TBS, truTV and HLN.

Benzinga had the opportunity to chat with Alex Donohue, a sports betting industry expert from Bet-NJ.com, an educational resource for novice bettors, about the event.

Revenge Betting Isn't A Thing

The concept of "revenge shopping" refers to consumers who are so eager to go out and shop they need "revenge" for lost time. 

The same concept has not applied to the few sports events occurring place during the quarantine, including the NFL Draft, UFC 249 and soccer in Germany, Donohue told Benzinga in an e-mail.

Sports fans typically bet on the teams, players or events they are familiar with, so a golf match won't generate the same level of betting interest, he said.

It holds true that the unique matchup pitting two of the best golfers and two of the best NFL quarterbacks against each other will attract "the casual bettor who typically places fewer, smaller stake bets," Donohue said.

"The most exciting betting action could well be between the players themselves."

What Bettors Should Look For

The golf match will cater to three unique segments, Donohue said: the seasoned golf fan, the casual fan who missed out on The Masters and football fans who are "starved of live action."

There's also broad curiosity from other sports fans and anyone preoccupied with the COVID-19 pandemic who's seeking "temporary escapism."

But does all this bode well for the relatively new but fast-growing sports betting industry? Investors debating a stake in an online betting company like DraftKings Inc DKNG have certain metrics to look out for, Donohue said.

"There are a range of metrics the betting industry uses to determine the success of an event," he said.

"[The] handle is a pretty decent indicator of the overall popularity of an event, then hold or revenue, the profit for the house after winning bets are paid, is the bottom line. In some cases, events that generate huge handle but poor or even negative hold can be considered a success since there's nothing a bookmaker can do to control the outcome."

Even if the betting activity falls notably short of expectations, it won't be considered a loss for the industry as a whole, he said: the sports industry is slowly coming back to life and the sporting calendar is inching closer to normalcy.

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