Betting pools run themselves: the app auto-publishes a slate of markets for every round, takes wagers while betting is open, grades everything from the scores it already collects, and produces a settle-up ledger when the round completes. As the organizer you don't configure anything to turn them on — but it helps to know how the machine works so you can answer your players' questions.
All markets are pari-mutuel pools: everyone's stakes on a market go into one pot, and whoever backed the winning outcome splits that pot in proportion to their stake. There are no house odds and no bookmaker — the "odds" shown are just the current pot divided by what's staked on each outcome, and the app takes no cut.
The app never handles real money. Bets are denominated in dollars, but ForeYourLeague is bookkeeping only — it tracks who owes whom and players settle up among themselves, in person or however your league prefers.
When does betting open?
Betting opens the moment you publish an event — as soon as the event is open for RSVPs, its markets are live. The app generates a full slate of markets for each round automatically, covering categories like low net, low gross, most birdies, strokes gained, and par-3/4/5 performance. Each market lists every player in the round's field as a backable outcome, plus a catch-all "The Field" outcome that covers everyone not individually backed.
While RSVPs are still coming in, the field isn't final — the Markets page notes this, and players who join late are automatically added as backable outcomes on the open markets. Early odds on a thin pot look noisy; that's normal and corrects itself as bets come in.
Some markets are based on putting stats (like total putts or three-putts). Those only take bets on rounds where putt tracking is turned on — if it's off, they show as disabled. This is the one lever you control as organizer: enabling the putts stat for a round makes those markets bettable.
When does betting close?
Betting closes when the round actually starts — when you tap Start Round, or when the first score comes in — not at the scheduled tee time. So if your tee time slips, betting stays open until play really begins, and nobody can sneak a bet in after watching the first group tee off early.
Until a market closes, players can cancel their own bets and get their stake back. Once the round starts, bets stand: a player who withdraws or is disqualified after betting closes doesn't trigger refunds — their backers ride to settlement, same as sportsbook convention once a golfer has teed off.
Can players create their own markets?
Yes. Beyond the automatic slate, any member can make a custom market from the Markets page. Custom markets show a "Custom" badge and the maker's name, and the maker's opening bet is placed as part of creating it. Three types:
- Head-to-head — player A vs. player B on a chosen stat (low score, most birdies, and more). Only the two named players matter; a third player's great round doesn't affect it.
- Over/under — a numeric line on one player's result, like "will Dave shoot over or under 84.5?" The form nudges makers toward half-number lines so the result can't land exactly on the line.
- Spread — player A vs. player B with strokes given, like "Arnold beats Beau by more than 3.5." The favorite has to win by more than the line to cover.
Can players bet on themselves?
Usually yes, with guardrails so nobody profits from playing badly:
- On markets that reward a bad result — like biggest blow-up hole or most three-putts — players can't back their own outcome.
- In a head-to-head or spread, a named player can only ever back their own side, never their opponent's.
- In an over/under, the player the line is about can only back the side that rewards good play — under on a strokes line, over on a birdies or greens line.
The app blocks the disallowed bets automatically; you don't have to police any of this.
What do the void warnings mean?
A market voids when it can't produce a winner, and voiding means every stake is refunded — nobody wins or loses. That happens when a market has fewer than two bettors, when nobody backed the winning outcome (including The Field), when a custom market has all its money on one side, or when an over/under or spread lands exactly on the line (a push).
While a market is still open, the app shows an amber void-risk warning on any pool that's on track to void — only one bettor so far, only one side backed, or nobody on The Field while some players are unbacked. That last one has a guaranteed fix: because The Field wins on any unbacked player's behalf, a single bet on The Field means the pool can't void for lack of a winner. The warnings appear on market cards, the market page, and the clubhouse TV, so your league can rescue a pool before betting closes. Encouraging someone to cover The Field is the one bit of organizing worth doing here.
If you cancel an event, all of its open markets are voided and refunded automatically.
How does settling up work?
Settlement is automatic: when a round completes, every market on it is graded from the round's scores and stats, winners are paid from each pot pro-rata, and ties split the pot among all tied outcomes' backers. The app then reduces everyone's wins and losses to the minimum set of player-to-player payments — instead of a web of small debts, each player sees a short list of who they owe or who owes them. Players pay each other outside the app and mark each line settled on the Payouts tab of the Markets page.
The Markets page also has a Rankings tab: a season-long leaderboard of each member's net betting profit and loss per league, built from settled bets. It's a fun standings race that costs you nothing to run.
Can I check a market's outcome myself?
Yes — every stat a market grades on is also shown on the event's stats page, so you never have to take a settled outcome on faith. If a "Most 3-Putts" or "Best Scrambler" market settles, the same putts/GIR/saves counts are right there on the stats page's Player Performance table, and you can ask the page's "Ask the Data" box the same question in plain English (e.g. "who had the most three-putts?"). See Viewing event stats for what's on that page.
When The Field wins a market — nobody had individually backed the winning number — the market page now names the player who actually carried it: the Field row reads "Won by {name}" once the round settles, or "Currently {name}" while the market is still open, so you can see who's leading the field before betting closes. That name is just a display, not a payout — everyone who backed The Field still splits the pot the same way. Markets settled before this existed just show "The Field" with no name attached; nothing is recomputed after the fact.