This plush golf course is home to the Waste Management Phoenix Open, the best-attended of four dozen stops on the PGA Tour. In February, more than 700,000 people will fill the coliseum that encircles the 16th hole. Until then, the pristine fairways tend to remain unruffled.
But on Monday, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan met there with top executives from the sports betting monolith DraftKings for a groundbreaking event that matched the high-energy golf championship environment that the WM Phoenix Open offers every year.
Representatives from the PGA Tour and DraftKings — as well as members of the Thunderbirds, a nonprofit organization that hosts the Phoenix Open — plunged shiny shovels into the desert soil to officially break ground on a DraftKings retail sportsbook location slated to open in October. The sportsbook won’t be the first brick-and-mortar operation in Arizona — there are 25 others, according to the Arizona Department of Gaming — but it will be the first retail sportsbook to open at a golf course anywhere in the U.S.
Get ready to bet moneyline on the back nine.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said the new DraftKings sportsbook will be “a world-class destination.”
Elias Weiss
A High-End Oasis for Golf-Happy Gamblers
A few years ago, Monahan said, he hadn’t considered the possibility of a sportsbook at a PGA tour stop. But now that sports betting has been legal and booming in the Grand Canyon State for more than a year, he’s sure metro Phoenix is just the place to host the nation’s first course-side betting shop.
“When we first began conversations with DraftKings in 2019, we knew they would be a partner of many firsts,” Monahan said. “We know this new facility will be worthy of Scottsdale’s reputation as a world-class destination and help maximize the PGA Tour’s economic, tourism, and charitable impacts on this state and this community.”
The project was announced in April 2021, and despite the formal ceremony on Monday, construction has been underway since May 2022. Monahan described the sportsbook as “a visually stunning 19th hole.”
While executives first intended to build the sportsbook as an addition to the stately Mediterranean-style Sawgrass Clubhouse, the course’s majestic centerpiece, they ultimately decided it deserved its own building.
The 12,000-square-foot facility, designed by Allen + Philp Partners of Scottsdale, will feature 390 seats, 40 kiosks, seven betting windows, and high-end dining with elevated domestic fare, a dozen beers on tap, and a cocktail bar. It will also boast an outdoor patio with fire pits, VIP cabanas, and thousands of square feet of wall-to-wall video screens.
On Monday, an intimate group of well-dressed attendees mingled with executives from the PGA Tour and DraftKings before shovels hit the ground. They enjoyed complimentary valet service and an open bar — portents of things to come — and chatted with Ezra Kucharz, DraftKings’ chief business officer, about handicaps and country clubs and how the kids were doing.
Captivating renderings of the DraftKings facility were displayed in a carousel on TV screens inside a makeshift white gazebo at the corner of Greenway-Hayden and Bell roads, which is the dusty razed lot that will soon contain a high-end oasis for golf-happy gamblers.
ESPN broadcaster Mike Golic, a former NFL player for the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins, attended the event and called TPC Scottsdale “one of the greatest golf courses in America.” Golic, a DraftKings partner, motioned to the renderings and promised, “It’s gonna be that good. It’s gonna be that big.”
DraftKings CEO Jason Robins said the company, which is already the leading mobile sportsbook operator in Arizona, is excited about expanding with the new venture in Scottsdale.
“I can’t wait to open the doors to this first-of-its-kind sportsbook that will supplement one of the world’s best golf destinations,” Robins said. “We are in for quite a treat when this thing opens, and for many years to come.”
He added that he expects the sportsbook to generate tax revenue through betting handle, tourism, and job creation. While golfers at TPC Scottsdale could easily pull out their cell phones on the course or in the clubhouse and place bets on sports, Robins is banking on tourists from states where sports betting is illegal seeking out a brick-and-mortar sportsbook rather than downloading a phone app during their visit to Arizona.
Construction is already underway for a 12,000-square-foot sportsbook from DraftKings at TPC Scottsdale.
Elias Weiss
‘Get the Gaming On’
Scottsdale Mayor David Ortega said that when it comes to special events, “no one does it bigger than Scottsdale does.
“We are at the threshold of the most epic super-event season Scottsdale has ever seen,” he added.
Ortega and Robins celebrated the lucrative money-making possibilities for the in-person sportsbook during the high-octane WM Phoenix Open.
There’s one contradiction there, though. No one mentioned that the sportsbook will be closed during the tournament, according to TPC Scottsdale. During the event, the facility “will be used for hospitality, with additional details to follow,” according to the venue. And it was later noted that PGA Tour executives, players, and caddies aren’t allowed to download the DraftKings app.
Still, outside of the PGA Tour, the sportsbook will be open year-round, and anyone is welcome to play. Not only is it the first golf course sportsbook in the country, it will be the first in-person sportsbook in the city of Scottsdale.
“Scottsdale is a touchpoint for the world,” Ortega said. “Here in Scottsdale, we are the first. I look forward to when we’ll get the gaming on.”
By all accounts, the DraftKings sportsbook at TPC Scottsdale will be above par.
“We’re in for a pretty special place,” Robins said.
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