Tag: American Century Celebrity Golf Championship

‘Hell no’: Steph Curry mocks Charles Barkley’s top-70 chances in celebrity golf tournament

Bettors are backing Barkley, but Curry isn’t buying it.

In preparing to write about Charles Barkley’s odds to win the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship, I went to look up some old clips of his swing for us all to laugh about. And to my surprise, it’s actually improved from the old disjointed stroke that made us feel better about our own games over the years.

The new swing is turning some bettors into believers.

Barkley’s odds to crack the top 70 of the 87-golfer field opened at +500 at Caesars Sportsbook but moved to +260 as of Thursday, according to ESPN’s David Purdum. One person that isn’t buying Barkley’s new and improved game, however, is fellow NBA superstar Stephen Curry.

“No, hell no,” Curry said Thursday at a news conference about Barkley’s chances. “Clip that, send it to him, let him play it on every tee box. There’s no way he’s doing it.”

Top 70 is as far as bettors were willing to go on Barkley. His 7500-1 odds to win the tournament aren’t seeing much action.

Barkley finished 76th last year, the best he’s done in the tournament. But Curry, who has 12-1 odds to win, might be alone in his doubt about Barkley’s chances to climb. The largest bet Caesars had taken through Thursday was $2,000 for Barkley to finish in the top 70. Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, the favorite at 3-1 to win the event, said it’s a bet he would also make.

“He hit the ball really well,” Romo said of Barkley’s practice session. “And he improved a lot last year, I thought. I would bet on him to finish in the top 70.”

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Charles Barkley is right about the excess of sports betting, but that ship has sailed

There’s too much demand.

Charles Barkley knows a thing or two about sports betting. He’s very open about his affinity for gambling and even has a commercial spot for a popular sportsbook. But even as he profits from the explosion of legal sports betting across the United States, the Pro Basketball Hall of Famer thinks we may have reached a point of excess.

Here’s what Barkley had to say during a media event Wednesday for the American Century celebrity golf tournament, via ESPN:

“There’s too much of it. We’ve got people in the stands betting on who’s going to make the next free throws. Think about that. If I was a scumbag, I’d look at a guy in the stands, a friend, and say, ‘Yo, I’m going to miss both of these free throws.’ Now, that’s cheating.”

Barkley’s right…the limitless explosion of sports betting has definitely created loopholes for exploitation. But here’s the thing, the people who benefit most aren’t about to reverse course. This was always Pandora’s box with legalization. The appeal to states, and obviously the sports betting operators, is money. There was no reason to believe they’d place limits on how much they could make.

For every bettor with a tip, there’s thousands more attempting to multiply their hard-earned money in the dark. States with hard limitations, whether it’s restricting betting in-arena or via mobile devices, are becoming the exception. Eventually the demand will make it so that those limitations fall too. There’s too much money to be made, and too many people willing to help them make it.

The leagues want that money too.

“I had an NBA owner say in the next three to five years … they’re going to be making triple what they do on television revenue,” Barkley said of the financial impact. “And when you get to that point, I think it’s really scary. I mean, c’mon man, if you’re able to bet on if a guy’s going to make two free throws in the middle of a basketball game, that’s obsessive.”

The biggest risk with sports betting is the same as any activity involving gambling: the chance of addiction. So Barkley is right to have some concern. But the reality is, that train left the station a long time ago.

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