The global sports betting market was estimated to be worth US$133 billion in 2025, but Formula One is not a sport synonymous with gambling culture.
In fact, according to the series’ director of commercial partnerships Jonny Haworth, Formula One only makes up a fraction of the billions of bets placed on sports globally.
“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,” he said at last year’s BlackBook Motorsport Forum.
It was there that Formula One first revealed that it was concentrating efforts on developing an “engaging betting product”. One month earlier, the sport struck a partnership with ALT Sports Data to develop betting-focused real-time predictive analytics and supply data and priced odds to regulated bookmakers.
Anyone who has placed a bet on Formula One before will know the options are limited to just three main categories: predicting the drivers’ champion, the constructors’ champion, and individual race winners. However, the agreement with Alt Sports Data promised to expand the markets available to bettors.
A year on from what the series described as a ‘milestone’ in the evolution of gambling in the sport, Formula One is ready to present itself as a deep and varied betting option for punters.
Haworth first revealed Formula One’s plans to expand into the betting market at last year’s BlackBook Motorsport Forum
How did we get here?
The agreement with Alt Sports Data was the first public sign that Formula One was looking to reevaluate its approach to betting. But Haworth admits that this has been a long-held goal for the sport.
“I’ve been at Formula One over three-and-a-half years, and when I joined there was a lot of aspirations for the betting business,” he tells BlackBook Motorsport, speaking now. “A lot of that came because the US market was exploding with the US sports organisations bringing on betting partners and regulation opening up.”
Indeed, the US is a significant driver of Formula One’s growing focus on betting. The market is already key for the series’ wider commercial goals, with three races now held in the country and a growing roster of American partners that have joined its sponsorship portfolio in the past few years.
US sports betting revenue increased by 25.4 per cent in 2024 to a new record of US$13.71 billion, according to the American Gaming Association (AGA), which presents a highly lucrative and underexploited revenue stream for Formula One.
Another signal of intent was the appointment of Mark Wrigley as the series’ new head of betting in October 2025. Wrigley brings vast experience from stints with betting and sports data specialists Sportradar and IMG Arena, and his career has particularly focused on introducing inexperienced sports to the gambling sector, such as tennis and golf.
Wrigley is now aiming to do the same in Formula One.
“To bring [Formula One] to market where, at the moment, there hasn’t been any investment on the product front shows there’s loads of green field in front of us,” explains Wrigley.
“Being more in control of our own destiny is something that was much more interesting to me than having a transactional approach, which a lot of rights holders do have with the betting sector.”
Las Vegas is synonymous with betting culture and could provide a launchpad for Formula One’s offering in the US (Image credit: Getty Images)
What will F1 betting look like and how will it be marketed?
Formula One will not be launching a betting app – at least not any time soon. It also won’t be an option within the existing app.
Instead, the sport’s focus will be on utilising the vast amounts of data available to deliver a more engaging betting experience for fans.
“The amount of data that F1 has, the quality of it, is limitless in terms of what can we do, [but] I think it’s more about having that strategic approach to creating really engaging and innovative products to push it forward,” says Wrigley.
This will take the form of editorial content posted on Formula One channels to educate fans on the betting options available, rather than taking bets as Formula One itself.
“We will start to launch a more focused betting stream that will be on our web and app that will be editorially focused, explaining these types of markets and what’s coming up on a weekly basis and how you can get involved,” Haworth explains.
Haworth also reveals that the series has built models around things like weather variation, track temperature, and tyre and pit stop strategies to allow bettors more in-play options.
“We can actually generate models around what’s going to happen during the race,” Haworth continues. “Rather than who’s going to win, it could be who’s going to pit next or who’s going to win this battle in the next ten laps, so it’s much more integrated into the race, which is what Formula One fans like.”
Formula One will also work closely with its approved operators, with regional partnerships set to be announced before the start of the season. That represents another commercial opportunity for the sport, which hasn’t had a betting sponsor since the expiry of its deal with 188Bet in Asia.
What you won’t see is live odds plastered over the official Formula One broadcast, something that is becoming increasingly common in US sports. Nor will gambling companies be advertising at the race tracks themselves.
Instead, marketing will be handled exclusively by Formula One’s betting partners, which Haworth believes will help reach the demographic and audience “that wants to engage in betting, not to encourage those who don’t want to”.
Betting on pitstops is just one example of the expanded range of options available to audiences (Image credit: Getty Images)
Does this betting push align with F1’s desire for younger audiences?
On this topic, there will be obvious concerns about Formula One’s expansion into the betting market at a time when it has been making a concerted effort to diversify its fanbase and attract younger audiences.
Firstly, the content on the website and app will be age-gated, and it will be limited to territories where betting is legalised. This is why Formula One will be announcing multiple regional deals rather than a global betting partner.
For Haworth, the tone of what Formula One produces is going to be a key part of its message around responsible betting.
“People would have to enter their date of birth to access it, so it is a more cautious approach,” he explains. “We’re leading with safer gambling and responsible gambling messaging alongside that.
“It’s not pure betting encouragement, it’s information for those who want to learn more about it – it’s for entertainment, it’s not an encouragement or an incitement to bet.”
At the same time, there is reason to believe that there is an appetite among Formula One’s audiences for a more comprehensive betting offering.
Data published last year by YouGov showed that 47 per cent of American sports bettors are interested in Formula One, more than double the share of the general US population. Pertinently, the research firm also found that 58 per cent of motorsport punters are aged 18 to 34, suggesting that younger, digitally native fans might be more likely to bet on the series.
Why engagement is more important than revenue – for now
Of course, the ultimate goal will be to create a sustainable revenue stream for Formula One – but Haworth is cautious about focusing too much on the numbers early on.
“If you focus on the short-term revenue of this, you forget what you’re actually trying to do,” he says. “If we focus on what’s best for the consumer … and how good is that product for them, then the revenue will take care of itself in the future.”
Betting will have an impact across Formula One’s wider ecosystem if this new strategy is implemented successfully, and the series has already carried out research to find out where future fan engagement lies.
“We did a fan survey last summer … and what we did find out was that our fanbase has a higher propensity to bet than other sports,” Wrigley reveals.
“That’s our focus for now and that’s probably the fanbase that we would see the most engagement from – those who enjoy the sport, avid fans of the sport, who like to bet and want to bet, but bet elsewhere.”
Betting may be a smaller part of Formula One’s current revenue pie right now, but the odds of expansion look promising for the future.
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