Despite having a rocky start that divided locals and still facing legal repercussions, the Las Vegas Grand Prix ended up being a historic windfall for sportsbooks.
While Max Verstappen continues to dominate F1 with his 16th win in 17 races, Caesars Sportsbook has set a new record for total betting handles on motorsport events, while rival firm BetMGM and Local Station Casinos, Westgate Superbook and Red Rock Resort were similarly reported to have record handles for F1 races.
“It was triple Daytona,” Caesars vice president of trading Craig McCraw told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, referring to the high-profile NASCAR event. “It was well over seven figures.”
BetMGM has announced that it has tripled the number of bets on previous F1 events during the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The full extent of the impact this race has had on sportsbooks will be more fully understood next month when the Nevada Gaming Control Board releases its monthly report for November.
Late night start
The race’s local start time of 10pm (1am on the East Coast) remains a subject of debate, and efforts have already begun to secure an earlier start. This time was also chosen to minimize disruption to local residents, who have already endured months of headaches due to extended track construction.
But as F1 continues to show pains in becoming a truly global sport, some drivers and team executives have also asked for an earlier start to adjust to their own time zones traveling from Europe. ing.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur told ESPN: “We’ve had no problems so far. Formula 1 is only for Europeans and we had to follow European timing, but that was fine.” he said. “Now that this is a global project, it’s even more difficult to find something that fits the 24-hour zone expectations.”