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Greg Norman. Zachary BonDurant-USA TODAY Sports

How revolutionary will a live-betting partnership be for LIV Golf?

By Chelena Goldman | Last updated 7/12/23

If you like to wager on professional golf, you have no doubt noticed that it is still difficult to put any money on LIV Golf events. It looks like that could be changing -- at least, that's the plan.

The rogue league announced on Wednesday that it has entered a partnership with a company called Simplebet, which plans to give fans the ability to place live bets on LIV Golf events. In a statement published in Sports Illustrated, Simpletbet CEO Chris Bevilacqua called the partnership "a transcendent moment for the sport."

But can this sports betting partnership alone really grow LIV Golf that much? Or are there still some kinks to be worked out?

#LIVGolf announces a new partner in SimpleBet.

SimpleBet will be providing in-play wagering complimented with video streaming.

This is massive for US Sports Betting. All legal US Betting jurisdictions will soon be offering LIV wagering.

Another domino falls as LIV Golf rises pic.twitter.com/rqBPMnSBwt
— LIV Golf Insider (@LIVTracking) July 12, 2023

For the argument in favor of LIV Golf, this partnership is definitely a good thing. Live betting is a very popular way to wager on golf tournaments, and it's an area that LIV Golf has missed out on given that big-time sportsbooks like DraftKings and BetMGM don't offer odds on its events. Simplebet would change that by distributing LIV's "real-time competition data to sports betting operators and media platforms globally, providing single-screen in-play wager technology complemented with low latency video streaming in the U.S. and other international markets," according to SI.

That sounds all well and good -- until you remember how much live betting relies on you watching a sporting event in real-time. And watching LIV Golf events on TV this season has been a bit of a fiasco.

LIV Golf's partnership with the CW has been a story of low viewer ratings and programming glitches that have kept its few viewers from seeing critical shots at tournaments. The whole experiment has been so bad, even, that LIV Golf abandoned releasing viewership numbers months ago.

Plus, fans already have to go onto the CW or LIV Golf app to stream opening rounds of LIV Golf events. Are fans going to watch on a whole other app now in order to place a live bet? Will the setup deter current viewers more than it attracts new ones?

There's no denying that bringing LIV Golf more into the sports-betting realm with this partnership with Simplebet could be a good thing for the breakaway league. But it looks like there are still some details that need to be hammered out for this endeavor to be a successful one.

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