As NASCAR heads to Las Vegas, there will be talks of odds and potential parlay head-to-head bets, just as there typically is for the Vegas race weekend.
But with the adoption of sports gambling in several states, what about everywhere else? NASCAR’s challenge in the gambling space is growth, and it has seemed to be more of a challenge than expected.
There has been no sudden boon in gambling on NASCAR, although the sanctioning body can cite a little bit of growth. NASCAR accounted for 0.25% of all money spent in 2021 betting on sports (so $25 of every $1,000), up from 0.1% in 2020.
"It’s great for our sport to be more involved in the sports betting world," said RCR driver Austin Dillon, whose team has a deal with BetMGM. "It gives fans another thing to really cheer for and get engaged in the sport. I haven’t really experienced anything more than what I have in the past with fantasy NASCAR." |
NASCAR executives can see, literally, that there is nowhere to go but up when it comes to percentage of the gambling handle. And they see a potential increase as a way to increase the size of its fan base more than as a revenue generator.
"When sports betting legalized, people were already betting on NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, whether it was through their local bookie, offshore, any sort of illegal ways that they were betting." said NASCAR’s sports betting managing director Joe Solosky.
"People weren't really betting on NASCAR because those offshore books or the bookies weren't offering odds on them. So with NASCAR, we were a little bit behind the curve in the sense that bookmakers weren't that crazy about working with us because the handle number was so low."
NASCAR has tried to increase bookmaker interest through three key areas. |
- The first is partnering with bookmakers. It has a deal with BetMGM where NASCAR’s website has a betting slip that links to that bookmaker’s website. It has a deal with Barstool Sportsbook for Phoenix Raceway and with WynnBet for its Richmond and Martinsville tracks in Virginia for signage and activation. And it has a deal with Fubo Gaming for content sharing though one of its content suppliers.
- It also has deals with gambling industry suppliers. It uses Sportsradar as its integrity partner to help educate people within the sport on what are ethically sound practices. Genius Sports has a deal to provide NASCAR data from NASCAR’s live timing and scoring to bookmakers. IMG handles international streaming rights. And the American Gaming Association works with NASCAR to educate fans about gambling responsibly.
- NASCAR then has deals with a few content suppliers (such as The Action Network) to help gamblers make picks and to promote other ways to gamble beyond just the winner of the race.
NASCAR is trying to promote betting on head-to-head matchups and feels the content partnerships can help those who don’t follow NASCAR understand that there could be interest in such wagers.
NASCAR also has a deal with BettorView that it hopes can start producing results this year with touch screens at NASCAR-owned tracks. BettorView would work with sportsbooks for more in-race, at-track betting. |
It has taken NASCAR the last four years to build this foundation of entry into the gambling space – a seemingly slow process considering the relatively quick movements of states to legalize sports betting.
"We're getting bombarded with requests from suppliers and vendors to work with us," Solosky said. "And we only have the bandwidth for only so many things. So we want to make sure that we think about the best ideas and what fits into our strategy.
"And our strategy overall is to increase the amount of people who are betting on NASCAR."
Solosky would like to see the number of sportsbook partnerships double this year. And he has been encouraged by data indicating that the amount of money bet on the Daytona 500 and the race last weekend at Fontana was more than the first three races of 2021.
He also is encouraged that legalized sports betting hasn’t, as he put it, "really hit NASCAR country yet."
"Florida was live for six weeks but won't be live (again) for a while," Solosky said. "North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, all those states haven’t legalized yet and those are huge populations who have a strong loyalty to the sport.
"And we'll see tremendous growth once those states go live." |
Solosky said about 20% of NASCAR fans gamble on the sport, about the same amount for other major sports. And while the sportsbooks might want to tap into those fans to generate revenue, NASCAR is more interested in creating new fans.
With that in mind, NASCAR wants to work with sportsbooks to promote to a general audience while potentially supplying them with assets through NASCAR’s digital media, hospitality and its email lists so they can tap into the NASCAR fan base.
"It's all about this hypothesis that if we get someone to bet on the sport who's never watched it before, they may watch the sport," Solosky said. "And if they watch a sport, they might say, 'Oh, that was cool. I had a great experience. I might go to a race.’"
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NASCAR has increased the amount of time in practice this week to 35 minutes, ditching the 15-minute group sessions for one overall session with all cars. That is a good idea considering the number of spins drivers had in practice last week at Fontana.
The 15-minute group practices were good for television – time to interview drivers when their group wasn’t on-track. But 35 minutes would be better than 15 minutes as far as teams getting some decent feedback.
The problem is they can’t make major changes to their cars and get only one set of tires. So how much that extra 20 minutes can really be put to use is questionable. At least an answer will come this weekend if it actually is much more valuable, and that’s not a bad thing for NASCAR to know. |
Have a question? I will answer a couple of questions in future newsletters. Respond to this Twitter post with your question:
https://twitter.com/NASCARONFOX/status/1481315046273830920
Here are this week’s questions and answers:
How much easier will it be for media outlets to get closer looks into team’s garage’s and tech with all the cars being extremely similar? - @AristonTfs
Much easier! Chad Knaus isn’t giving me the stink eye when I am taking photos of certain areas of the car. Teams used to hate it when we would film them lowering the cars from the hauler because it might give away something underneath the car. Now it is all the same. And it’s not just media outlets who are getting a closer look. It is my understanding that social media employees of teams have more ability to show parts and pieces than they ever had prior to this year.
With the ways the tires are now do you think nascar will change a rule to keep the team from going four down since they can’t drive the car back after the tire go flat? - @ChandlerJPaul72
There really is no way to change the rule unless NASCAR allows time for them to do wave-arounds to get laps back. And it already is taking too long to get them back to pit road. And what would you do late in the race if there is no caution? The answer isn’t changing the rule; the answer likely comes with adjusting the technical specifications of the car – and there are no easy solutions. |
| "We're going to win a few races very soon." — Daniel Suarez |
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