Formula One’s director of commercial partnerships has said the sport is really focusing on building a more exciting and interactive betting experience. Johnny Haworth said the idea is to give fans more ways to place bets and get involved while watching the races.
Speaking at the BlackBook Motorsport Forum in London, Haworth admitted that F1 has been a bit behind other sports when it comes to betting. But he’s confident that a better, more engaging gambling setup could take fan involvement to the next level.
According to SportsPro.com, Haworth stated: “We’re sort of on a journey in the betting space at the moment.
“I think we make up 0.4 per cent of the overall global betting handle, which is pretty crazy for a sport the size of Formula One 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].”
Nielsen Sports recently reported F1’s global fan base has hit 826.5 million, up 12% from last year. In China alone, fan numbers have jumped 39% over the past year, thanks in part to the return of the Shanghai Grand Prix after COVID.
Formula One eyes up betting data
Formula One still hasn’t leaned into gambling quite as heavily as many other major sports, especially in the US, where the betting industry is booming. In fact, as more states legalize sports betting, revenue there surged by 25.4% in 2024, hitting a record-breaking $13.71 billion, according to the American Gaming Association.
Formula 1 have today announced that ALT Sports Data has joined the sport as Official Betting Data Supplier to drive engagement and growth in the Formula 1 betting ecosystem.
For more information read here: https://t.co/tbp5Nm9nxY
— F1 Media (@F1Media) February 28, 2025
But things may be starting to shift. Just last month, California-based company ALT Sports Data partnered up with F1 to provide official betting data. The idea behind the move is to drive both growth and fan engagement, all while keeping things safe and properly regulated.
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