Phil Mickelson bets over a billion dollars
Walters used material from his multi-year partnership with Mickelson to write "Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk," which will be published by Simon & Schuster on August 23. In it, Walters said that between 2010 and 2014, Mickelson placed 7,065 bets on football, basketball and baseball. In 2011 alone, this golfer placed 3,154 games, approximately nine games per day. That year, just on June 22, Mickelson bet 43 on MLB baseball and lost 143,500 USD.
Walters estimates Mickelson's total bet value at more than a billion dollars over three decades of playing red and black in sports, and losing a total of $100 million.
There are negative bets but Mickelson still plays, even many times. Walters statistics Mickelson has 1,115 bets of 110,000 USD in the hope of winning 100,000 USD, another 858 times to release capital 220,000 USD with a meal of 200,000 USD. When adding these two values, Mickelson's bet amounted to more than 311 million USD.
As for golf, Mickelson is not afraid to lose with the house, even when he attended the Ryder Cup in September 2012 at the Medinah Country Club on the outskirts of Chicago.
Walters said at that time, Mickelson confidently recruited the United States as the host, with Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson and himself fighting, would win the European visitors. So over the phone he asked Walters to put $400,000 in the door of the champion team. However, the star in the international gambling world firmly refused after recalling that Pete Rose – coach of the Cincinnati Reds team was banned from practicing in top baseball for betting on the home team.
After that call, Walters wasn't sure if Mickelson dropped the idea or kept doing it. When Walters revealed this to the media on August 10, Mickelson immediately denied it. "I never bet the Ryder Cup. The public knows that I like to bet for fun on the golf course, but I have never damaged the value of integrity in the game."
At the 2012 Ryder Cup, Mickelson had a reason to believe and "put down money" for the home team to win. By that period, the US team led Europe 10-6 when entering 12 duels on the last day. However, the away team suddenly beat the home team with the final score of 14.5 - 13.5, winning eight and drawing one match. That day, it was Mickelson who lost to Justin Rose.
Mickelson was born in 1970, 24 years younger than Walters. The two met each other on the occasion of playing together in the exchange section at the 2006 Pebble Beach Pro-Am tournament in Northern California. At that time, Walters was well known in the business world and is considered one of the most successful people in the history of American sports betting.
Since 2008, Walters and Mickelson started doing business together, including betting with the principle of dividing capital and profits. The relationship ended in 2014. Walters estimates that Mickelson, when he was a partner, held a fortune of $250 million.
In April 2017, Walters was charged with unlawfully profiting from stock trading based on inside information and was sentenced by a New York court to five years in prison and a $10 million fine. In this case, Mickelson was also involved but innocent.
Walters was in prison, and was released to house arrest in early May 2020 with the expected execution time to be completed on January 10, 2022. However, it was only on January 20, 2021, that President Donald Trump signed a pardon, on the last day of his term.
In his forthcoming autobiography, Walters says he wouldn't have to go to jail if the investigation of the case only required Mickelson to declare he didn't receive any inside information. The fact that Mickelson quit that action pushed him to the point of losing his freedom, losing tens of millions of dollars.
