The 5 best golf betting apps in 2026

Updated September 2026

Why this list looks different

When golfers search for "golf betting app," they're not looking for a sportsbook. They're not looking for an app to bet on Scottie Scheffler. They're looking for an app that runs their Saturday skins game with their buddies.

That's a completely different category, and it's one that barely existed until recently. Sportsbooks handle professional golf betting. But for the millions of golfers who play side bets during their own rounds — the $5 skin, the $10 Nassau, the wolf game that someone has to track on the back of a scorecard — there hasn't been a real app.

So this list compares bagboy against the tools golfers have actually been using to track their bets. It's not a list of five competing apps. It's a list of one app and four workarounds.

1. bagboy — The only app that runs your group's side bets

Price: Free

Platform: iPhone (Android coming soon)

bagboy was built from scratch for exactly this purpose: running the side bets that golf groups have been tracking on paper and in their heads since the game was invented.

What it does

• Every major game format. Skins (with carries), Nassau (with auto and called presses), wolf (with lone wolf and blind wolf), match play, stroke play, Stableford (standard and modified), Vegas, Nines, Sixes, and custom side bets.
• Stack games. Run skins + Nassau + closest-to-the-pin on the same round. bagboy tracks all of them simultaneously on one scorecard.
• Live scoring. One scorekeeper enters scores hole by hole. Everyone follows on their own phone. Game standings update in real time as scores come in.
• Automatic handicap strokes. Add your index once. bagboy calculates course handicaps for the tees you're playing and applies strokes to the correct holes — for every game, every round.
• Who owes who. After the round, all bets from all games are netted into the minimum number of payments. Tap to open Venmo with the recipient and amount. bagboy never holds or transfers money.
• Running ledger. If you play the same group every week, bagboy tracks running balances. Settle weekly, monthly, or whenever you feel like it.
• Crews, leaderboards, rivalries. Your golf group becomes a crew with seasons, records, head-to-head stats, and a feed. Every round counts toward something.

Why nothing else compares

The other items on this list are workarounds — tools that can do part of the job if you bend them enough. bagboy was designed for the whole job. It understands that a skin carries when two players tie. It knows that a Nassau has three separate bets and that a press starts a new one. It knows that wolf teams form differently every hole. It handles handicap strokes per course and per player. And at the end, it does the netting math that takes twenty minutes by hand.

No calculator app, bill-splitting app, spreadsheet, or paper scorecard does any of that.

Download bagboy free →

2. Golf skins calculator apps — Simple calculators, no live scoring

Price: Free to $4.99

Platform: Varies

A few small apps exist that let you enter scores and calculate skins or basic match play results after the round. They're calculators, not scoring apps. You play your round, write everything down, then come back and punch numbers into the app.

What they do

• Enter scores for each player after the round
• Calculate skins (usually just skins, sometimes match play)
• Show basic results

What they don't do

• No live scoring during the round — it's all post-round data entry
• Most don't handle Nassau, wolf, Stableford, Vegas, or any format beyond basic skins
• No handicap stroke application (or it's manual)
• No settlement or who-owes-who — just results, not payments
• No social features, no crews, no leaderboards
• Many are abandoned apps that haven't been updated in years

The verdict

These apps solve about 10% of the problem. They can tell you who won the skins — if you enter all the data yourself after the round. They can't run the game live, handle multiple formats, apply handicaps, or settle the bets. For most groups, they're barely faster than doing the math by hand.

3. SettleUp / Splitwise — Generic bill-splitting, no golf knowledge

Price: Free

Platform: iPhone, Android

Some golf groups have tried to use bill-splitting apps like Splitwise or SettleUp to handle their golf bets. The logic is understandable — these apps are good at tracking who owes who in a group. The problem is they have zero understanding of golf.

What they do well

• Track debts between group members
• Calculate the fewest payments to settle up
• Integrate with Venmo and other payment apps
• Work for any kind of shared expense

What they can't do

• They don't know what skins, Nassau, wolf, or match play are. You have to do all the game calculations yourself, then manually enter "Alex owes Ben $15" as a generic expense.
• No scorecard. No live scoring. No handicaps.
• No game logic at all — carries, presses, wolf rotations, Stableford points, none of it. You do the math, the app just records the final number.
• Every round requires manual entries for each bet between each pair of players. For a foursome playing skins + Nassau, that's a dozen separate line items entered by hand.

The verdict

Splitwise and SettleUp are great apps — for splitting dinner, rent, and vacation expenses. For golf, they're a ledger without a calculator. You still need to figure out every bet by hand. They replace the parking-lot Venmo chain, but not the parking-lot math.

4. Spreadsheets — The old-school approach

Price: Free (Google Sheets) to $9.99/month (Excel)

Platform: Any

Every dedicated golf group has tried this at some point. Someone who's good with Excel builds a spreadsheet. It usually has tabs for each game format, a scoring input area, and formulas that calculate the results and settlement. Some of these spreadsheets are genuinely impressive — we've seen ones with conditional formatting for carries, dropdown menus for wolf partners, and automatic Nassau press tracking.

What they do

• Calculate any game format — if someone builds the formulas correctly
• Handle multiple games on one sheet
• Track history across rounds if maintained
• Completely customizable to your group's house rules

Why they fail

• Someone has to build and maintain it. The spreadsheet wizard moves away, and nobody else knows how the formulas work. Breakage happens.
• Data entry is after the round. Nobody is entering scores into Google Sheets on the course. You still need a paper card, then transcription later.
• Errors compound. One wrong cell, one mistyped score, one formula that doesn't account for an edge case (what happens when someone picks up and takes a max?) and the whole output is wrong. Nobody double-checks the spreadsheet — that's why you built it in the first place.
• No mobile experience. A complex spreadsheet on a phone is miserable. Zooming, scrolling, accidentally selecting the wrong cell.
• No social features. No leaderboard, no rivalries, no feed, no crew structure. Just numbers in a grid.
• No settlement integration. The spreadsheet tells you the result, but you still need to open Venmo and type the amounts manually.

The verdict

Spreadsheets are the most capable alternative to bagboy in terms of raw calculation power. A well-built one can handle any game format. The problem is everything around the calculation: building it, maintaining it, entering data, avoiding errors, and actually settling up. bagboy does what the spreadsheet does — without requiring an engineering degree to maintain.

5. Paper scorecards — Where most groups still are

Price: Free (from the pro shop)

Platform: Analog

Let's be honest: this is what most golf groups actually use. A paper scorecard from the pro shop, a pencil, and some mental math in the parking lot. It's been the default for a hundred years.

What works about it

• Dead simple. No app to download, no account to create, no learning curve.
• Universally available. Every pro shop has them.
• Fast for basic scoring. Write the number, move on.
• Tangible. Some golfers genuinely like the feel of a pencil and paper card.

What doesn't work

• Side bet tracking is a nightmare. The card has room for scores, not for skins results, Nassau matches, wolf points, and carry tracking. You need a second sheet, or you scribble in the margins.
• Settlement takes forever. Four players, two or three games, handicap strokes — you're doing 15 minutes of math standing next to your car.
• Mistakes are common and unrecoverable. Miscount a skin carry, forget that Chris got a stroke on 14, lose track of the press count — and there's no audit trail. Arguments happen. Someone pays more or less than they should.
• History disappears. The card goes in the trash or a pocket and is forgotten. No record of the round, no running stats, no leaderboard.
• No one else sees it. Your buddy on the other cart doesn't know the standings until you tell them at the turn.

The verdict

Paper scorecards work for basic scoring. They fail completely for side bet tracking, settlement, and anything beyond the simplest one-game round. If your group plays any kind of side bet, you've been doing unnecessary work and making avoidable mistakes for years. bagboy replaces the card, the math, and the arguments.

Feature comparison

The verdict

This isn't a close comparison. bagboy is the only purpose-built tool for running golf side bets. Everything else on this list is either a workaround, a partial solution, or analog technology from the 1920s.

If your group plays any kind of side bet — skins, Nassau, wolf, match play, or anything else — bagboy replaces the paper, the mental math, the parking-lot arguments, and the twenty-minute settlement process. It runs your games in real time, handles handicaps, and shows who owes who with one tap to Venmo.

The other tools on this list had a good run. They served their purpose when there was no better option. Now there is.

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