Billy Walters, a Las Vegas businessman, professional gambler and convicted felon, alleges in a new book that Phil Mickelson bet more than $1 billion on sports and tried to place a $400,000 wager on the 2012 Ryder Cup in which he participated.
In a soon-to-be-released book titled Gambler, Secrets from a Life at Risk excerpted Thursday by the Fire Pit Collective, Walters details how he first met Mickelson at the 2006 AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am and how two years later they entered into a gambling partnership that would last five years.
Mickelson could bet more money on games, Walters said, because he had less of a reputation as a sharp gambler. They combined for years of large bets across sports.
Walters writes that Mickelson would regularly wager $100,000 or $200,000 on football, basketball and baseball. He alleges that Mickelson’s total gambling losses were close to $100 million.
Walters also details specific gambling records of Mickelson’s from between 2010 and 2014. According to the excerpt, Mickelson made 3,154 bets in 2011 alone—averaging almost nine wagers per day. He placed $110,000 bets to win $100,000 a staggering 1,115 times.
In the book, Walters also details a discussion about betting the 2012 Ryder Cup.
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.
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.
Walters said he had no idea if Mickelson may have made the bet elsewhere. The U.S. lost that Ryder Cup, 14.5-13.5 when Europe made a furious final-day comeback in singles matches, erasing a four-point deficit. Europe’s match wins that day included Justin Rose defeating Mickelson.
Editor’s note: Mickelson released a statement Thursday afternoon in which he denied betting on the Ryder Cup.
Walters was convicted of insider trading in 2017 and served time in prison. Mickelson was a relief defendant in Walters’s case, never charged but required to pay back about $1 million he made in a stock deal. Walters said in the excerpt that Mickelson “refused to tell a simple truth” that could have kept him out of prison.
Mickelson is playing this week at the LIV Golf event in Bedminster, N.J. After a pro-am round Thursday morning Mickelson said “I’m going to pass talking today.”
In June 2022, Phil Mickelson spoke exclusively to Sports Illustrated about his gambling history.
“My gambling got to a point of being reckless and embarrassing. I had to address it. And I’ve been addressing it for a number of years. And for hundreds of hours of therapy. I feel good where I’m at there. My family and I are and have been financially secure for some time.
“Gambling has been part of my life ever since I can remember. But about a decade ago is when I would say it became reckless. It’s embarrassing. I don’t like that people know. The fact is I’ve been dealing with it for some time. Amy has been very supportive of it and with me and the process. We’re at place after many years where I feel comfortable with where that is. It isn’t a threat to me or my financial security. It was just a number of poor decisions.”
Mickelson also addressed gambling on the course, where he was widely known for betting on practice rounds with fellow pros.
“On the golf course, it’s creating competition. But it’s the anxiety, the other things that come across with gambling off the course and addiction off the course that I really needed to address.”
