The author of a new book has alleged that Phil Mickelson gambled over $1bn and attempted to place a bet on the 2012 US Ryder Cup team to win the trophy even though he was a member of it.
Las Vegas businessman and professional gambler Billy Walters makes the claims in his upcoming book, Gambler, Secrets of a Life at Risk.
In an excerpt published on The Fire Pit Collective, Walters, who was convicted of insider trading in 2017, for which he received a five-year prison sentence, later commuted, details how he met Mickelson in 2006 and later began a gambling partnership with him.
Walters is considered one the most successful sports bettors of all time, and in the excerpt he first described meeting Mickelson while playing at the 2006 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
According to Walters, Mickelson already knew of Walters’ sports gambling reputation and, two years later, at the Wachovia Championship, he ran into Mickelson again while a guest of the bank. After another discussion, the pair eventually entered into a partnership, where they agreed to put up half the money each per bet.
Walters explains that the partnership was beneficial to him as Mickelson had higher limits with bookmakers, allowing him to place larger bets. He then claims he matched Mickelson’s betting patterns so as not to arouse suspicions with bookmakers.
Despite eventually having the accounts closed down, Walters explains that Mickelson revived an old account so the partnership could continue. The excerpt says the partnership ended in spring 2014, but Walters then lays out the extent of Mickelson’s gambling.
Walters deduces, after receiving further information from two sources, that between 2010 and 2014 Mickelson bet $110,000 to win $100,000 1,115 times and claims he bet $220,000 to win $200,000 858 times, with the total wagers coming to over $311m.
He then claims Mickelson made 3,154 bets in 2011, averaging nearly nine a day, including on 22 June making 43 bets on major league baseball games, which made losses of $143,500. Walters also claims Mickelson made 7,065 bets on football, basketball and baseball.
Walters also alleges Mickelson’s gambling losses were close to $100m.
Walters also recounts a conversation between the pair, when Mickelson called him from Medinah at the 2012 Ryder Cup and asked him to place a $400,000 wager on the US team to win.
The excerpt continues: “I could not believe what I was hearing. ‘Have you lost your f****** mind?’ I told him. ‘Don’t you remember what happened to Pete Rose?’ The former Cincinnati Reds manager was banned from baseball for betting on his own team. ‘You’re seen as a modern-day Arnold Palmer,’ I added. ‘You’d risk all that for this? I want no part of it.’
‘Alright, alright,’ he replied.”
The excerpt then says Walters had no idea if Mickelson eventually placed the bet.
In his biography of Mickelson, Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf's Most Colorful Superstar, Alan Shipnuck claims the golfer had gambling losses of $40m, and before beginning his LIV Golf career, Mickelson opened up on his "reckless" and "embarrassing" gambling addiction.
