Billy Walters Alleges Phil Mickelson Wagered Over 1 BILLION Dollars And His Losses Totaled Over $100 Million In His New Book
Phil had both. After the Wachovia meeting, we kept in touch and eventually entered into a gambling partnership that lasted five years. During that time, we played a few dozen rounds of golf together, most of them in Southern California. We always had a small bet on the line—usually $10,000—but our matches were never about money. We became what I thought were friends. If you’ve ever had a golf buddy, you know what I’m talking about.
Phil said he had two offshore accounts that would take big action from him. In all the decades I’ve worked with partners and beards, Phil had accounts as large as anyone I’d seen. You don’t get those types of accounts without betting millions of dollars.
My reason for partnering with him was simple. Given my reputation in the gambling world, my limits with Phil’s two bookmakers were roughly $20,000 a game on college and $50,000 on the pros. Even after our fifty-fifty split, Phil’s limits of $400,000 on college at offshore sportsbooks and another $400,000 on the NFL enabled me to at least double my limits. Phil also had a $100,000 limit on college over/under bets with each book, twenty times my maximum.
By his own admission, Phil was worth an estimated $250 million during our time betting together (he collected a reported $50 million annually in endorsements alone). We agreed that anytime our winnings or losses reached $3 million, we would settle up. In truth, I was no more worried about Phil paying me $3 million than an average person owing me a thousand bucks.
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They said it was nothing for Phil to bet $20,000 a game on long-shot, five-team NBA parlays. Or wager $100,000 or $200,000 a game on football, basketball, and baseball. Based upon my detailed betting records and additional records provided by the sources, here is a snapshot of Phil’s gambling habit between 2010 and 2014:
One of the more unbelievable stories here of what is an excerpt of Billy Walters' new book. The only person I know who has responsibly placed more wagers than 3,154 in a single year is Mr. Bet The Board Big Cat himself. How do you even have this much time if you're one of the world's most famous golfers and basically an A-List celebrity? There's another part of the article that talks about how he wanted to bet $400,000 on Team USA in the Ryder Cup in 2012..
In late September 2012, Phil called me from Medinah Country Club just outside Chicago, site of the 39th Ryder Cup matches between the United States and Europe. He was feeling supremely confident that the American squad led by Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson, and Phil himself was about to reclaim the Cup from the Euros. He was so confident that he asked me to place a $400,000 wager for him on the U.S. team to win.
What happened next? Billy allegedly called him crazy and refused to do it because of the optics. He said he had no idea if Phil placed it elsewhere, but like anything in life, if there's a will, there's a way. Too bad the Europeans came back from a 10-6 deficit in the final day of singles matches and pulled off the greatest upset in Ryder Cup history in the "Miracle of Medinah". Just a drop in the bucket if you look at it compared to the billion dollar wagered mark.
I'm no mathematician but that totals out to $91,000 wagered every single day for 30 straight years. Bananalands. Anyway, this book is probably a must read if you're interested in sports betting, regardless of what you think of Billy Walters. Some of the stories may be hyperbolic, maybe even this one is, but at least next time you're placing a responsible wager you know you've got an infinity to go before you touch Lucky Lefty's numbers. Don't unit shame.
P.S. I always thought Billy Walters nickname of "the greatest gambler ever" was such a flex. It cost him a little bit of jail time but still a cool title to walk around with for the rest of your life.