Saudi International Odds: Where You Can Bet Loaded Field, Headlined by Dustin Johnson

Most of the best golfers in the world will not be at Pebble Beach this week. Instead, Dustin Johnson, Xander Schauffele, Bryson DeChambeau and more head overseas for the Saudi International, in what could be a trend in the future.

This event is run through LIV Golf Investments, of which Greg Norman is the frontman. Norman has been linked to a potential future golf league that would be funded by Saudi backing.

Three of the world's top-10 players according to the Official World Golf Rankings are in the field, including the betting favorite — Johnson — who is +750 at BetMGM. Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau are each +1200.

Cameron Smith, who already has a PGA TOUR win under his belt in 2022, is +1200 along with Tyrrell Hatton.

Other PGA TOUR regulars in the field include Tony Finau (+1600), Joaquin Niemann (+2200), Marc Leishman (+2200), Patrick Reed (+3500) and Jason Kokrak (+4000) among plenty others.

The Saudi International is considered an Asian Tour event, something not all states offer markets on. As an example, Arizona and Colorado sportsbooks offer the Asian Tour, but Illinois and New Jersey are among those that don't.

Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and Wyoming were the only states offering any odds on the Saudi International on BetMGM.

If not all states can offer a betting market for events like this moving forward, sportsbooks will be missing out on revenue and bettors will be forced to pursue other avenues if they want to wager on the biggest names in the sport.

Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth and Daniel Berger are the only players ranked inside the top 20 who are playing at Pebble Beach this week on the PGA TOUR. The winner in California this week gets 38 OWGR points, while the winner in Saudi Arabia gets 50.

Phil Mickelson, who is +8000 to win at Saudi, believes the building competition for players is ultimately a good thing.

"I think everybody is looking at it and seeing parts of it that can really help and benefit their situation, their life, their career, and then there's parts of it that they're probably concerned with," Mickelson told reporters this week. "I'm appreciative of the fact that there is competition, and that leverage has allowed for a much better environment on the PGA TOUR."

Multiple players, including Johnson and Lee Westwood, refused to discuss a potential future Saudi-funded league this week, indicating they have signed non-disclosure agreements. Ian Poulter was reportedly offered $30 million to join.

Mickelson added, "Pretty much every player in the top 100 in the world has been contacted."

"It's kind of like a game of poker really where the European Tour and the PGA TOUR have had the biggest hand," Westwood said, "and now there's somebody else come to the table with more chips, so everybody is on their guard and very defensive and are clearly seeing the Asian Tour as a threat. Nobody can deny that."

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