Getty Image / David Becker
In a book set to be released later this month, Phil Mickelson’s gambling partner, Bill Walters, estimates Lefty has wagered over a billion dollars in the past three decades and puts his losses in the nine figures.
Earlier this week, author Alan Shipnuck who wrote PHIL: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar, tweeted about seeing an advanced copy of Billy Walters’ book GAMBLER that has a release date of August 22, 2023. Shipnuck said “Walters devotes 2 chapters to his ex-friend Mickelson. He has all the receipts on Phil’s sports betting and HOLY S—!”
Flash forward to today and Action Network‘s Darren Rovell is sharing more from Billy Walters’ book, including how much Phil Mickelson has allegedly bet and lost over the past three decades, according to the book:
“More than one billion dollars. That’s how much Phil Mickelson gambled on sports over the last three decades, with losses nearing $100 million, according to Billy Walters — one of the world’s most successful gamblers of all-time.”
According to Rovell, Walters claims in the book that he and Phil Mickelson split profits 50-50 and Mickelson used Billy Walters’ betting strategy. In an excerpt from the book published on the FirePitCollective, Walters reveals why he partnered with Phil Mickelson:
“My reason for partnering with him was simple. Given my reputation in the gambling world, my limits with Phil’s two bookmakers were roughly $20,000 a game on college and $50,000 on the pros. Even after our fifty-fifty split, Phil’s limits of $400,000 on college at offshore sportsbooks and another $400,000 on the NFL enabled me to at least double my limits. Phil also had a $100,000 limit on college over/under bets with each book, twenty times my maximum.”
The excerpt goes on to say:
“Based on our relationship and what I’ve since learned from others, Phil’s gambling losses approached not $40 million as has been previously reported, but much closer to $100 million. In all, he wagered a total of more than $1 billion during the past three decades.”
For the skeptics out there, Billy Walters appears to provide receipts… He lists betting frequency and wagering amounts from his time betting with Phil Mickelson.
Walters writes:
“He bet $110,000 to win $100,000 a total of 1,115 times.
On 858 occasions, he bet $220,000 to win $200,000. (The sum of those 1,973 gross wagers came to more than $311 million.)
In 2011 alone, he made 3,154 bets—an average of nearly nine per day.
On one day in 2011 (June 22), he made forty-three bets on major-league baseball games, resulting in $143,500 in losses.
He made a staggering 7,065 wagers on football, basketball, and baseball.”
It is hard to imagine Phil Mickelson will confirm or deny any of this, for various reasons. But those numbers are truly staggering.
Lots of guys I know feel sick when they lose bets in the $1,000-$5,000 range. This is claiming they were betting over $100K more than a thousand times!
It kind of makes you wonder what secret whales are lurking below the surface of the gambling industry these days, doesn’t it?
Phil Mickelson’s gambling mentality was out in full force earlier this week. Bryson DeChambeau challenged Phil to a 9-hole match and Lefty’s first question was ‘what are we playing for?’ in a priceless moment. Phil went on to easily defeat Bryson.