"It will be, by a distance, the biggest golf event in history from a betting point of view. We'll take over 2m on it, " he said. Bookmakers in the UK and Ireland are expected to generate turnover of 35m to 40m on the Ryder Cup by the time the event finishes later today.

This year's tournament, underway at the K Club in Straffan, Co Kildare, certainly seems to have caught the imagination of the betting public. Last week UK chain William Hill, which operates 55 betting shops in Ireland, announced it had accepted a bet of £347,000 ( 515,000) from a man in Newcastle on the US team to win at odds of 6 to 5. Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said the wager, which will see the bookmaker pay out over 1m should it prove successful, was " the biggest we, or anyone else, have ever taken on a golf event". Hill claims it has also taken a 119,000 bet on the European team from a punter based in Ireland.

Patrick Kennedy said the biennial golf tournament between the best professional golfers in the US and Europe was nowhere near as lucrative for bookmakers as other major sporting events such as the World Cup, on which Paddy Power alone took in around 40m in bets, but that golf was becoming more popular with punters.