Golf writer Jason Sobel, formerly at ESPN and the Golf Channel, just wrapped up a week-long piece in which he compiled the best gambling stories from PGA pros. Unsurprisingly, more than one story involves the G.O.A.T. Michael Jordan who’s a notorious gambler on the course. Floyd Mayweather Trusts LeBron. Why not start off with the “Money” Man himself, Floyd.
This list was originally published in January 2010, last update was January 2020, let is know in the comments if you think anyone should be added.
Phil Bull
Phil Bull made a massive amount of money from betting, but not only was he a successful gambler he was also a breeder, owner, writer and publisher. It is estimated he made millions during his career.
In 1948 he launched the now internationally renowned organisation Timeform.
Phil had a shrewd attitude towards betting. He looked at the season as a whole and his form study was the same for every race.
How To Make A Book by Phil Bull
Phil Bull: The Biography by Howard Wright
JP McManus
Multi millionaire JP McManus is a renowned gambler and race horse owner.
Originally from Limerick in Ireland, McManus started betting as a schoolboy before working in his family’s plant hire business. He had his own betting stand for a while at Limerick’s greyhound track and it wasn’t long before he moved into owning horses as well as betting and laying. These days JP owns the largest number of National Hunt’s horses.
His first ‘big’ win (rumoured to be around £250,000) was at Cheltenham with a horse called Mister Donovan who was 2nd favourite but ended up winning the race. He also won over £1 million from famous Scottish bookie Freddie Williams in 2006 at Cheltenham.
Although McManus is a high level gambler a large part of his wealth is said to have come from international financing and money dealing which he overseas from his base in Geneva.
Still a big player and maybe he should be at the top of this list as he is still very active. If there is a book to read about JP let me know in the comments, I’d love to read it.
Best Pro Golf Gambling Stories For Beginners
Alex Bird
The late Alex Bird made a considerable amount of money from betting after the war. It is estimated he had an annual turnover of £2 million from gambling.
His interest in gambling began when he was a child. He learned a lot from his father who was a bookmaker. However, he decided there was more money to be made from the other side and he become one of Britain’s most well known professional punters of all time.
Bird had several methods for getting one over on the bookies but his most famous was probably his success on betting on photo finishes which in those days took about 5 minutes to develop. This process earned him a fortune over a period of around 20 years and only stopped when the modernisation of technology meant there was no longer the delay in photo developing.
Alex Bird made his own mind up when it come to betting and rarely listened to anyone – he stuck to his rules and systems. Even now, almost 30 years after his death, there are current systems available that are based on the practices he used.
His biggest bet was on the well known horse Mill Reef at Gimcrack. The season after this Mill Reef won the Derby, again backed by Bird who had by then backed 7 Derby winners in 8 years.
One of his last bets was on a horse called Final Shot in 1990 when it won the Ayr Gold Cup.
Patrick Veitch
Patrick Veitch is one of Britain’s most successful gamblers who has won over £10 million from betting.
At just 15 years of age this mathematical genius got a place at Cambridge although he never completed his degree, instead he turned to gambling and started his own tipping line.
By his mid 20s Patrick Veitch was already making a lot of money but then came a turning point in his life. He become the target of a criminal and was forced to live in hiding for many months putting his career on hold and leaving him broke. However, following this episode he become more successful than ever and was soon making £1 million a year from his strategic betting methods.
Veitch is a strong believer that there is no short cut when it comes to betting – the only way to win is by working hard at it to get it right.
It is very rare to see Patrick at the races. He uses agents to place his bets and spends most of his time watching and analysing events from his computer.
Harry Findlay
Harry Findlay is a larger than life gambler who has not only made a fortune but also lost a fortune from gambling over the years.
He has always had a love for greyhounds and worked with them for a while after leaving school. Then aged just 20 Findlay spent 11 months in prison convicted of credit card fraud.
These days bets from his home office which is fully equipped with a number of TV screens and monitors often with different sporting events on at the same time.
As well as being a professional gambler Harry is also an owner. He jointly owns the 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, Denman who also won two Hennessy Gold Cups. Big Fella Thanks was another of his co-owned horses who he named after his beloved greyhound 1999 Coursing Derby winning Big Fella.
Barney Curley
Barney Curley is a professional gambler and trainer from Northern Ireland who has a reputation for being one of racing’s most colourful characters.
During his childhood he watched his Father run up huge gambling debts but still took up betting himself.
In 1975 he famously organised one of the biggest betting scams of all time – Yellow Sam which made him over £300,000. He has also appeared in court for illegal lottery after raffling his mansion for £1.5 million.
More recently Barney organised big coups in 2010 and 2014 and 2016.
Terry Ramsden
Terry Ramsden originally made his fortune from investment company Glen International in the 80s. He was worth millions and, amongst other things, owned a string of race horses.
He was also well known for his betting and in 1985 won £2 million on one horse. The following year he had another big win on Motivator in the 1986 Coral Golden Hurdle Final.
Towards the end of the 80s however, Ramsden’s company collapsed and he started losing massive amounts on bets – he reportedly lost £1 million on one bet alone. This lead to him going bust at which time he fled to America. He had won but also lost millions of pounds.
In the late 1990s he was jailed for concealing assets during his bankruptcy – one of which was rumoured to be a £70,000 plus win on the horses.
Despite returning to public life a few years later Ramsden has failed to recreate his earlier success and has since been involved in a number of arguments over money.
Pro gambler or rich man who lost it all on the horses? Many think the latter but he was a big player all the same.
Dave Nevison
Dave Nevison became a professional gambler in 1993 after he lost his job working as a currency trader in the City.
He now has an estimated six figure income made up largely from gambling but also from journalism columns he writes. Dave has also written 2 books and has his own horse racing tipping service.
A Bloody Good Winner: Life As A Professional Gambler by Dave Nevison
No Easy Money: A Gambler’s Diary by Dave Nevison
Alan Potts
At the age of just 14 Alan Potts started betting on horse racing and become a full time professional gambler after being made redundant from his office job in 1991.
He has admitted it took him many years to become a regular winner and despite making an estimated £50,000 a year from betting in the past, he has also suffered losing runs. Although he is also an owner, author and pundit Potts’ main source of income is from gambling.
In 1999 he jointly formed The Golden Anorak Partnership and this is the banner under which his horses now run.
Alan has written 2 books and also wrote for the betting exchange WBX until it closed in 2015.
Against The Crowd by Alan Potts
The Inside Track by Alan Potts
Clive Holt
Legendary punter Clive Holt was first shown that money could be made from betting by his father who kept a couple of greyhounds during the 1960s.
In the early part of 1975 Clive decided he was ready to quit his job working for the Electricity Board and take up gambling on a full time basis.
He started out using a fairly random approach dictated by his finances and he kept no proper records of bets he had placed. He soon made the decision to start recording his bets and this was the first of two business methods he implemented in order to make a better profit. The second was to setup a betting bank.
His first bet was £67 to £30 on Western Jewel who won comfortably and within 6 weeks he had made more money than he was earning in a year working in electricity. Over the years, although rarely winning more than £1,000 at a time, Holt’s profits from betting provided a lifestyle of luxury cars, exotic holidays and a listed country house with acres of land.
A number of books have been written by Clive Holt who was also the man behind Fineform.
Profitable Winners Always Back Winners
Be A Successful Punter
Fineform Winners Guide
Profitable Betting Strategies
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Michael Jordan is known for being the best player in the history of basketball, being as dominant on the offensive end of the court as he was on defense, constantly making the highlight reels and knocking everybody off their feet with his crafty moves.
Thus, the six time NBA champion and ultimate leader of the original American Dream Team made a lot of friends and enemies during his entire career on his way to stardom, although nobody could ever disrespect the GOAT or diminish his impact.
In fact, Michael was so damn fierce that he even punched his own teammate Steve Kerr in the face during practice, being a very tough guy to deal with if things didn’t go the Bulls way and definitely not the guy you want to be rivals with.
And most of this kind of behavior can be explained by what could’ve been Michael’s main feature: his competitiveness. Michael just hated losing, whether it was a pickup game, a ping pong matchup or game 6 of the NBA finals, this guy just couldn’t handle defeat.
Furthermore, his competitive spirit and determination to win often pushed him over the edge, although that wasn’t always positive, as he’s been known for struggling with gambling and losing a lot of cash in Vegas for this affection.
Betting on Rock Paper Scissors
As a matter of fact, one of his former teammates even stated that the multimillionaire face of the Jordan brand actually betted as much as 100K dollars in rock, paper and scissors matchups against other buddies, and even if you have as much money on the band as MJ does, this is just bananas.
Golfing and losing
The former San Diego Sports Arena manager Richard Esquinas was actually inspired by his royal Airness as most of us were, but for many different reasons, as he talked about Jordan’s gambling problem in his best-selling book, stating that the greatest player in basketball history actually owed him almost 1.3 million dollars after 10 days of golfing together, although MJ wind up having to pay just under 1 million, but after refusing to do so, Esquinas had to settle with “just” 300 thousand dollars.
Also, Charles Barkley even told the media that his longtime rival and buddy betted him 300k on a single putt while playing golf with him and other wealthy guys, and here we are, struggling to get to the end of the month.
Olympic Poker
Best Pro Golf Gambling Stories Games
Michael Jordan and the USA Dream Team had pretty much a walk in the park during their Olympic run at Barcelona, outscoring opposing teams by more than 40 points per game. Of course, that made both Jordan and his buddies sit down and relax, spending most of the time partying and of course: Gambling.
As a matter of fact, rumors say that Michael Jordan actually slept for just under 1 hour after staying up until 6 am playing poker alongside Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley and his Bulls teammate Scottie Pippen before completely wrecking Croatia’s hopes in the match for the gold.
Read More
Betting on luggage
As crazy as it may sound, Michael’s gambling problem actually made him do prop bets about the most absurd things on a return flight after the Olympics while team USA was waiting for their bags at Portland, even stating that he was going to be the first guy to receive his luggage. But, the craziest thing is that he actually won, getting the easiest 900 dollars of his life. Nonetheless, he furtherly revealed that he had actually bribed the airport staff just to win the bet. Classic Michael.
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Oh, Craps Table!
A decade ago, Jordan was reportedly partying in Vegas alongside other athletes, like Adam Pacman Jones from the Cincinnati Bengals, that told the media that Michael was so obsessed with the craps table that he winds up losing as much as 5 million dollars in the casino and that he was actually 1 million up at one point before the 6 time NBA Champion took matters into his own hands to waste everybody’s money. Sadly for Jones, he got into a brawl at a strip club after losing that lot of cash and got suspended from the NFL. Tough night, buddy!
Playoff game tomorrow? Let’s hit the casino!
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If you have a gambling problem, avoiding Atlantic City would definitely be the smartest thing to do, especially if you have to play the New York Knicks in the playoffs the day after. Still, Jordan had no time for friendly advice and decided to party all night long in the casino, eventually losing the game and making the media had a feast with him.
However, this is Michael Jordan we’re talking about, so the Bulls obviously bounced back from that tough loss and took the series with great ease, eventually winning the last consecutive championship of his first three peat back then in 1993.
Besides, it’s been rumored that his first retirement was actually a secret gambling suspension, but that the league didn’t want to taint the image of the ultimate face of the NBA, the guy that made this sport so popular and beloved.
Truth or not, you just can’t mess with MJ or he’ll get back at you, and if you manage to beat him, he won’t catch a break until he takes everything back from you, so you better treat him with respect and please, don’t test him.