Special Event – The Match 6 Betting
The Match is back for its sixth instalment, and Bodog is right behind the charity event with The Match betting. The event is featuring, as always, some of the biggest names in sport, though the format is being shaken up a little (again).
This golf competition charity event, at least this year, involves two teams of two; although with a regularly changing format, previous events have included one-on-one affairs.
For the team events in the past, the pairs were made up of one NFL player and one professional golfer from the PGA. 2022 is a bit different, and we’ll see just four football legends swinging clubs around a Las Vegas course.
In many ways, this shakeup might make The Match a more interesting spectacle as we’ll get to see four athletes completely out of their comfort zones trying to do their bit for a good cause, plus win the bragging rights of beating their NFL buddies.
The new format will also make The Match betting a more interesting prospect as there is hardly any historic data to go off, especially since talent on a football field doesn’t necessarily translate to success on a golf course.
The Match’s Most Memorable Moments
In the five previous runnings of the charity competition, we’ve seen big names from both sporting codes team up to take on their rivals to gift the viewing public with plenty of entertaining moments, both in the playing and the playful sense.
The first-ever running of The Match took place in late November 2018 at the Shadow Creek Golf Course, another leisurely Las Vegas location. It took off with a bang, as Tiger Woods faced off against fellow pro golfer Phil Mickelson over 22 holes, with the latter coming out on top.
Fast forward to The Match 4, which was held in Montana in July ‘21, and you’ll notice we’re beginning to mix things up on the green. It was a doubles game, with Aaron Rodgers and Bryson DeChambeau competing against Tom Brady and Phil Mickelson. This was now Mickelson’s fourth The Match appearance and Brady’s second, but despite their familiarity with the event, the pair lost for the second time.
The Match V came along just a few months later in November 2021. This reverted back to the original all-PGA, one-on-one format, with a head-to-head showdown between Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka. The two professional golfers were supposed to take part in a 12-hole game, a format that was supposed to mimic a 12-round boxing match between two heavyweight bruisers.
But it ended early after Koepka dominated the event, sealing something of a premature victory. In addition to being completely one-sided, it also wasn’t the most spectacular of events for an audience who’d grown to expect a lively tone of trash talk and banter between the pair, but it was a much more sedate affair compared to previous competitions.
It is probably why The Match organisers have opted for another shakeup of the format, hoping to strike gold with four burly football players smacking balls around a fairway.
Over the last four years, a total of nine athletes have competed in The Match:
- Tiger Woods
- Phil Mickelson
- Peyton Manning
- Tom Brady
- Charles Barkley
- Stephen Curry
- Bryson DeChambeau
- Aaron Rodgers
- Brooks Koepka
These names show just how high profile the event is and how much attention the charity competition can garner. It’s also going to grow a little longer after The Match 6.
The Match 6 Venue, Date, and Details
On June 1, the sixth edition of The Match will take place at the Wynn Golf Course, Las Vegas. It will be an entirely NFL-soaked affair, featuring an all-star cast: Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, and Josh Allen.
The event was announced by Brady, who took to Twitter back in April, joking that they had tried to organise a “tag team cage match” but that the idea had been knocked back by their lawyers.
Despite its neon-lit, concrete jungle surrounds, The Wynn Golf Course is located in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip like the city’s answer to Central Park. and features a full 18 holes, punctuated by three lakes, several streams, and two marshland areas. It’s also surrounded by a whopping 8,000 trees and packs in some steep elevation changes that you wouldn’t expect in the vast flat land of Nevada’s desert.
It makes the perfect location for a celebrity golfing grudge-match between four quarterbacks who are more used to smashing into their rivals rather than gently tapping a small ball across a green.
Tom Brady / Aaron Rodgers (-240) vs Josh Allen / Patrick Mahomes (+180)
Despite a below-par finish in his previous two outings at The Match, Tom Brady has been given The Match betting’s best odds of -240. This is probably more to do with the fact that he’s been paired with his former NFL rival, Aaron Rodgers, than due to his skill in golf – although it isn’t naught.
Brady has an affinity to just about every sport out there, and he’s been known to enjoy a round or two on the course. However, his interest in the sport, personalised golf balls, and fancy clubs weren’t enough to help him win the last time.
Brady and Rodgers will be representing the NFL old guard, with 82 years of life between them. They’ll also be carrying the NFC banner when they go up against the AFC’s comparatively fresh-faced Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes.
Allen and Mahomes are the underdogs going into The Match 6, but that designation doesn’t sit under the same banner as an NFL game, since these four have never confronted one another with a 9-iron before.
But, it should be said that Allen may be a dark horse. He is an avid golfer who regularly takes to the fairway. In fact, Josh Allen actually turned down an invitation to take part in the 2022 Pro Bowl in order to compete in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am tournament. Allen and his tournament partner, Keith Mitchell, finished 55th out of 156 – surely a respectable position for a hobbyist.
While The Match events don’t typically lend themselves to the sorts of career-defining efforts that a PGA tour might demand, The Match betting is still a serious business. Although the odds suggest Brady and Rodgers have the edge, the outcome could swing either way, so locking in those underdog odds could translate to a handy return.