Although he divided the locals, he had rocky beginning, and is still facing legal turn outThe Las Vegas Grand Prix ultimately brought a historic win for sportsbooks.
Although Max Verstappen continued his F1 dominance with his 16th win in 17 races, Caesars Sportsbooks set a new company record for total betting on any motorsport event, while rival entity BetMGM and local Station Casinos, Westgate SuperBook and Red Rock The resort similarly reported a record for an F1 race.
“It was three times more than Dayton,” Craig Mucklow, Caesars’ vice president of merchandising, told Las Vegas Review Journal, citing the high-profile NASCAR event. “It was over seven figures.”
BetMGM said it tripled the number of bets placed on any previous F1 event during the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The race’s full impact on sports betting will be more fully understood next month, when the Nevada Gaming Control Board releases its monthly report for November.
It starts late at night
The race’s local start time of 10pm – 1am on the East Coast – remains a matter of debate, and efforts are already underway to secure an earlier start. This time was chosen in part to minimize disruption to local citizens, who had already suffered months of headaches due to the construction of the extended line.
But several drivers and team executives are also pushing for an earlier start to help their own acclimatization to the time zone by traveling from Europe, as F1 continues to show increasing problems in becoming a truly global sport.
“In the past we didn’t have any problems because F1 was only for Europeans and we had to stick to European time, and it was fine,” He said Fred Vasseur, Ferrari team principal, to ESPN. “Now it’s a worldwide project and it’s much harder to find something that matches the expectations of a 24-hour zone.”
