Formula 1 working on ways to improve and increase their betting markets

IMAGO

Formula 1’s director of commercial partnerships Jonny Haworth has revealed the sport is concentrating efforts on developing an ‘engaging betting product.’ 

Speaking at the BlackBook Motorsport Forum in London, that took place on 27 March, Haworth recognised that Formula 1 is falling behind other sports in the betting world. 

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However, he did recognise that if the sport can get it right, they could unlock a new type of fan and help grow the sport even more. 

“We’re on a journey in the betting space at the moment,” Haworth said. “I think we make up just 0.4% of the overall global betting handle, which is pretty crazy for a sport the size of Formula 1 and with a sport that has low latency data at a high volume which is what drives betting.

“When you put all those things together there’s something there and we’re working incredibly hard to figure out how we open up an engaging betting product that enables people not to just look at outcome betting, but enables people to use the data of the sport to be able to engage in various different in-play betting options.”

Currently, most markets for Formula 1 are solely pre-event outcomes such as qualifying positions or race winners. There’s very little options for sports bettors to bet on races whilst the race is going on. 

Sports bettors could, in the future, be betting on next lap times or even race winners whilst the race is going in which makes it such an exciting sport to bet on in 2025 and beyond.

These comments come off the back of Formula 1 announcing last month that they had struck a deal with ALT Sports Data as the sports official betting data supplier. 

Speaking at the time of that announcement, Emily Prazer, CCO at Formula 1, said: “Sports betting is an increasingly important part of the global fan experience, and Formula 1 is committed to delivering new and entertaining ways for our audiences to engage with the sport.

“We are delighted to partner with ALT Sports Data, whose expertise in bespoke sports betting markets and analytics makes them the perfect partner to help us drive forward in this exciting new chapter.”

This partnership, in essence, enables fans to bet on new markets in the knowledge that the data behind the betting system is accurate, consistent, and ratified. 

The sport claimed this would be a ‘significant milestone’ in the evolution of Formula 1 betting, expanding market opportunities and offering new fan engagement opportunities. 

It’s clear to see that those in charge of the sport are actively looking at ways to improve the sports presence in the betting market. It remains to be seen what becomes available for sports bettors and when.