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The Independent
07-04-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Top 20 Betting Sites for The Masters 2025: Best Masters Bookmakers
April marks the start of majors season in golf, and it begins with the sport's showpiece event – the Masters. The tournament, held every year at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, USA, is the most prestigious in the sport, with winners awarded the famous Green Jacket – the most coveted award in golf. This reputation, combined with the location as the first major of the year, means that the Masters is a big event in the world of sports betting too, with the range of players and varied circumstances attracting plenty of wagers. It's vital that punters choose the top UK bookmakers for the Masters, so we've compiled a guide to the best Masters betting sites for 2025. Below, punters will find our recommended sites, as well as a guide to Masters golf betting, information on promotions and the latest US Masters golf betting odds. Top Masters Betting Sites for 2025 The table below details our recommendations for the best Masters betting sites, that includes both established operators and new betting sites, with consideration given to their welcome offers, existing golf-related promotions and the overall functionality and usability of the site and betting app. B est Masters Betting Offers for 2025 In this section, we run through the most common Masters betting offers that punters are likely to come across: Sign-Up Bonuses: Welcome offers from golf betting sites include bet £10 get £30 bonuses and more, with free bets available for use on the Masters. Free Bets: Bookies will provide bet and get deals for placing bets on the Masters, offering free bets after placing qualifying wagers. Also look out for rare no-deposit free bets that can be available from certain bookmakers. Each-Way Extra Places: Bookmakers will offer extended places for Masters betting. Look out for the best options, including top eight and top 10 places. This promotion is great for bettors placing each-way bets to get optimum value on the Masters. Odds Boosts & Enhanced Prices: Daily specials on top players, groupings and more, with enhanced betting odds for the Masters. Bookies will often isolate one betting market for a Super Boost, providing outstanding value for bettors. MoneyBack Specials: Moneyback specials are common on Masters betting. Circumstances around these Masters betting offers can include if your player finishes second behind the favourite. Free-to-Play Games: Betting sites offer free-to-play games where customers can unlock free bets to use on the Masters and more. Other prizes are also available such as free spins. Loyalty Rewards: By placing five or more bets on the Masters, bettors can unlock free bets and other prizes for loyalty. How We Rate Masters Betting Sites Here are the factors we consider when ranking and recommending the best Masters betting sites: Licensing: We only recommend Masters betting sites that are licensed by the UK Gambling Commision (UKGC). UKGC-licensed operators ensure that customers' details are protected and that sites are regulated. Welcome offer: Value is imperative for all betting sites, especially when betting on The Masters. It starts with the welcome offer that should at least match the rest of the industry for rewarding new customers. Promotions: We only recommend Masters betting sites that offer a complete collection of the best promos for new and existing customers. Using our recommended operators, users can expect to find free bets, moneyback specials, price boosts, acca boosts, acca rewards, super boosts, extra places, and much more. Value: We strive to find operators that provide optimum value on your Masters betting odds. You'll struggle to find Masters betting sites that provide better value than our recommended betting sites, but customers should always shop around to ensure you find the best price before placing a bet online. Markets: The Masters is the signature golf betting event of the year and as such, there should be ample markets to reflect the importance of the major. There should be extensive options for bettors based on players, groupings, national, props and specials. Usability: Betting sites are not effective unless they have sound usability and functionality for all features. Our recommended operators tick all the boxes when it comes to usability, providing a sound online betting experience. App: The best US Masters betting sites should offer a quality native betting app for both Apple and Android devices. Operators should provide ease of use for navigating, placing bets, cash outs and more when using betting apps. Payment options: These betting sites should offer a wide range of payment methods to reflect modern day transactions. Debit card and bank transfers should be a staple, but methods should also include options for PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay and pre-paid cards. H ow to Bet on The Masters Below, we've given punters some detail on the most common markets to use for betting on Masters golf. Outright Winner Market: This is simply bet on who will win The Masters. Each-Way Betting: This is essentially making two bets – one on your chosen player to win, and one on them place. Masters betting sites offer extra places for each-way bets. Look out for the best extended Masters offers before placing your bet as well as the each-way odds price that are usually a 1/5 of the outright price. Top 5/10/15/20 Finish: This is a straightforward wager on players to finish in the top positions. The odds lessen in value with the more places you add, although your chances of winning are increased. Bear that in mind before wagering. Regional Betting: Betting on the Top American, Top European, Rest of the World, player groupings and similar. Match Betting: This is betting on head-to-head player matchups. Bookmakers either select two players or allow you to select your own based on the pool of players in the tournament. Make The Cut: A simple wager on whether the player will make the score for the cutdown after the second round of action. You can also bet for a player to miss the cut. Prop Bets & Special Markets: These markets are more specific, and include first-round leader, a player to get a hole-in-one, the winning margin and many others. The Masters 2025 Betting Tips Below, we have included a few relevant Masters golf betting tips for this year's tournament. The top contenders on betting sites for the 2025 Masters include Rory McIlroy, 2023 winner Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler. The American, who won in 2024 and 2022, is the favourite in the Masters golf betting odds at 11/2. 25-year-old Swede Ludvig Aberg is also backed for a high finish having hit form at the right time, while Colin Morikawa rounds off the top five favourites, with golf betting sites offering 16/1 on the American winning the Green Jacket. Elsewhere, the American quartet of Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth and Bryson DeChambeau range from 19/1 to 33/1 (Spieth) on win-only markets. Nevertheless, there are plenty of other relevant markets that punters can wager on, including Top 5 and Top 10. For example, Scheffler is offered around 23/20 for a top-five finish and 20/35 for a top-10. Further down, Schauffele may be 19/1 to win, but he's 19/10 for a top-10 finish. Several players could provide value on each-way bets too. Placing an E/W bet is essentially wagering twice – once on that player to win, and once on them to place in the top positions (with the threshold set by the betting site). In addition, bettors can find value on alternate markets such as top American, top European and similar offers. Though Masters betting tips are always handy, there may be some longshots who are worth considering for the Green Jacket. Past years have seen winners emerge from nowhere, from Danny Willett in 2016 to Trevor Immelman in 2008. Joaquin Neimann has been performing well on the LIV Tour and is at 27/1 at the moment, while home-favourites such as Max Homa and Will Zalatoris could finally deliver on their talent – the Americans are priced at 150/1 and 40/1 respectively. When having a bet, it's vital to practice responsible gambling. Betting can be addictive and it's important to stay in control of your betting. Never treat gambling as a way to make money, never bet more than you can afford and when the fun stops, stop. Gambling sites offer punters tools, like deposit limits, profit and loss trackers and self-exclusion options, to help them stay in control. But if you ever feel like you need help or advice on gambling addiction, don't hesitate to contact one of the charities or organisations below.
New York Times
31-01-2025
- General
- New York Times
Walking With Rhinos in Zimbabwe: ‘Everyone Benefits'
Daybreak filtered through spindly stands of Terminalia trees, and the windshield glowed. It was September in northwest Zimbabwe, and the morning carried the lingering chill of an African winter. I rode at the head of a convoy that had been rumbling through the night. Campfires flickered eerily from the forest, where truckers ferrying copper out of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo had stopped to rest. A towering man with slate-colored eyes yawned at the wheel. Mark Butcher, a Zimbabwean in his 60s, had led the convoy for more than 14 hours from the grassy Lowveld of southeast Zimbabwe toward the fringes of Hwange National Park in the northwest. Hwange is a wildlife lover's dream, and Mr. Butcher — who was once a ranger there, and now manages Imvelo, a small safari company that helps villages near the park benefit from tourism and conservation — knows it well. Leopards, lions, Cape buffalo and more than 50,000 elephants are among the animals that roam the 5,660-square-mile expanse. But there is one animal among the Big Five that has long been absent: the rhinoceros. Mr. Butcher was in the process of changing that. Tucked in the middle of the convoy was a six-wheel-drive truck carrying two wild, drugged white rhinoceroses that had been donated from a private reserve 280 miles south of Harare, Zimbabwe's capital. There, a philanthropic American hedge fund manager has spent more than 25 years creating one of the world's most successful rhino repopulation programs, expanding the herd to several hundred from a few dozen. For decades, only a few of these extraordinary mammals could be found in the country at all. By 2002, Africa's rhinos had been poached to the brink of extinction for their horns and the myth that they hold curative powers. Now, thanks to Mr. Butcher, countless locals, and a team of ecologists, biologists and veterinarians, these two white rhinos were on their way to a new home in their historical habitat on the opposite end of the country. The rhinos would not live in Hwange proper, but on adjacent community-owned land, where locals had been trained and hired to care for them. By encouraging visitors to venture out of the park to see the rhinos — and giving locals a stake in the animals' well-being — the project is supposed to bring jobs, services and life-changing benefits to villages long relegated to the economic periphery. I spent a week checking out this ambitious community tourism project that Mr. Butcher has worked on for more than a decade. The fate of that project, the Community Rhino Conservation Initiative, hinged on the two drugged rhinos trundling with us through the night. A new home The full brunt of the sun filled the truck as our convoy approached Mlevu, a community at the edge of the park. Ahead of us, clusters of tidy mud huts sprouted from neatly raked yards of sand. Scores of schoolchildren had gathered alongside the dirt road, each one wearing a vivid blue uniform and waving a white flag that read 'Welcome Rhinos!' Here, sandwiched between Hwange and this village of about 80 families, the newly created, 2,500-acre Mlevu Rhino Sanctuary would be the rhinos' home. To ease their transition, the animals would be released into an enclosed area within the sanctuary where they would spend several months, watched over by armed guards. If all went well, within a year, the rhinos would be fully acclimated to their surroundings and, thanks to the guards' constant presence, used to humans. Then visitors would be able to enter the sanctuary for a fee and walk with the rhinos as they grazed. Mr. Butcher zipped away from the other vehicles in the convoy, parked under a thorn tree, and climbed out of the truck. 'Uyathanda umkhombo?' he bellowed to the students in Ndebele, a Bantu language. 'Do you like rhinos?' The children burst with glee. The convoy rumbled ahead of us toward the sanctuary, giving everyone a glimpse of the rhino crates. The kids went silent, as they'd been taught, so as not to disturb the animals. A short while later, Mr. Butcher and I headed to the Mlevu sanctuary, where the rhinos' cages were being carefully unloaded. By late morning, village dignitaries and travelers on safari had made their way to the holding pen, or 'boma.' We all watched in amazement as the rhinos cautiously emerged from their cages. Among the observers was Vusa Ncube, a guide who grew up on the fringes of the park. He was clearly moved. 'You can talk about cheetahs, you can talk about lions but, man, rhinos are special,' he said. 'We are very happy you are here.' That night I settled into my tent at Bomani, one of Imvelo's four properties in the area. This one had canvas-wall tents built next to a watering hole frequented by hippos and elephants. I curled up in my bed and fell asleep to distant, unknown creatures calling and screaming in the dark. The next day, I hopped into Mr. Butcher's truck with other Bomani guests. We were headed to the village of Ngamo, another community that abuts the park. It was only about eight miles away, but felt like a world apart from Mlevu. It was in Ngamo that the community rhino initiative began and where the nascent tourism endeavor now flourishes. Our Land Cruiser bounced down ruts of Kalahari sand and brittle grass. Mr. Butcher honked and students came running out of the woodlands. 'Gada, gada, gada!' Mr. Butcher shouted. 'Jump in!' Kids sprinted to the truck and climbed into the back. Within moments they were singing call-and-response songs about love and cowardice. 'You're lazy! You're lazy!' they shouted through peals of laughter to schoolmates too far away to hitch a ride. 'Driver, shift gears!' they said, cackling. 'Go faster!' Thatched-roof homes with mud walls were scattered around the scrublands. We stopped outside Ngamo primary school, a yellow concrete building with a red metal roof. In the courtyard, the kids sang a song about their 'beautiful school' and recited the Lord's Prayer. The headmaster, Progress Sibanda, led me to a classroom painted in bright, cheery colors, with desks, chalkboards and shelves of textbooks from Oxford University Press. Mr. Ncube, the guide, had attended this school only a few years ago, when it had four walls but no roof. 'We are very happy you are here,' Mr. Sibanda said to our group. In 2022, Mr. Butcher teamed up with Ngamo's leaders for a pilot project that introduced a different pair of white rhinos into a sanctuary that was much smaller than Mlevu's: the 420-acre Ngamo Rhino Sanctuary. The goal was to prove that villagers could protect the animals and engage with travelers. A few years later, the project has accomplished both, with more than 2,500 foreign visitors arriving in total, each of whom paid up to $180 to see and hike with the rhinos. So far, those fees have pumped about $100,000 into a community fund, an enormous amount for a village that once relied only on subsistence farming and had virtually no money in circulation. Now Ngamo has a medical clinic serving 90 homesteads. An outdoor market sells local handicrafts: tapestries, baskets and ornaments carved from nuts with rhinos etched on their sides. The school now has a roof, and the Ngamo Lions youth soccer club plays on a field nearby. Mlevu, on the other hand, has none of this — other than a school in deep need of repairs. It may soon, though, thanks to the new rhinos. 'Everyone wants to see the Big Five and with the rhinos, that creates the opportunity for them to venture into the villages,' Mazayi Moyo, a headman and carpenter in Ngamo, told me as we talked in his kitchen. His wife, Siphiwe, sat next to him below earthen shelves holding neat rows of yellow plates and blue cups. 'Everyone benefits,' Mr. Moyo said. Running with the Cobras Over the next few days, I did some traditional safari activities from my base near Bomani, and a few untraditional ones, too. Two Midwesterners on a tour through southern Africa invited me to join them on their game-viewing drive in and around Hwange, where we paused to watch kaleidoscopic birds like lilac-breasted rollers and swallow-tailed bee-eaters flitter among the thorn trees. A 'journey' of giraffes ambled off into the distance. A lioness emerged from a bluebush with two fuzzy cubs near the tracks for the Elephant Express, an open-air train, which rumbled past on one of the few working sections of the unfinished 19th-century Cape-to-Cairo railway. Elsewhere in the park, you can pedal a mountain bike along trails to search for lions (with armed guards), and there are bunkers at watering holes for spying on thirsty fauna. Toward the end of my stay, I spent a few hours with Daniel Terblanche, a soldier who now lives near Hwange and trains and manages a community wildlife protection unit, the Cobras, staffed with local young men who spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week, guarding the rhinos with automatic rifles from only a few feet away. 'The idea is guard them so heavily that it becomes a suicide mission for any poacher,' Mr. Terblanche said. Visiting with the Cobras is enlightening. You can go on morning runs with them, and tour the headquarters to see how the operation works. You can even go on exercises with the Cobras and bound through the bush carrying a small-caliber assault rifle, firing at paper targets hidden among the trees. I was horrible at it, but it drove home a point. 'The danger these guys face is very real,' Mr. Terblanche said. Many of the Cobras were once poachers themselves, he added. Walking with the rhinos That afternoon, I finally got my chance to walk with the rhinos in Ngamo. (The two males brought to Mlevu were adjusting well, but it would be months before they would be habituated to humans.) Along with some guests from Bomani, I climbed into Mr. Butcher's rig for the drive to the Ngamo sanctuary. There, the two pilot project rhinos, Thuza and Kusasa, were sleeping by the gate. When we arrived, they slowly got up and ambled off into the plains. I watched them spar, like teenage boys jockeying for pizza, before they started hoovering up the grass. Two Cobras followed close behind. For 20 minutes I walked with Thuza, then Kusasa. At times, they were no more than 20 feet away, close enough to see their leathery skin flicker under the flies and to hear their snorts. I've had close encounters with grizzly bears and gray whales, magical yet terrifying experiences both, but even those could not compare. There are communities all along Hwange now clamoring for rhinos, each hoping to jump-start its own tourism offerings. Mr. Butcher and local leaders have already set in motion plans for at least two more sanctuaries to open over the next four years. Mr. Butcher hopes that one day this corner of Zimbabwe could have 1,000 rhinos roaming free as a sustainable, breeding population. 'That's the holy grail,' he said. Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2025.
