Motorsports fans and racing lovers will have certainly noticed a growing trend in partnering between Formula 1 and gambling brands. Whether we are talking about sites offering betting online in Australia or crypto platforms offering sports wagering all across the world, it becomes more evident that gambling companies are increasingly becoming more involved and active in sponsoring F1.
Sponsorships in Formula 1 races are a billion-dollar activity, undertaken by marketing managers of global brands. Sponsoring the king of motorsports – F1 – has always been the pinnacle of communication campaigns for top-notch, global organizations. In the beginning, it was mostly about brands from the car manufacturing industry -tires and the like, were to be the dominant product categories to sign deals with F1 teams and drivers.
As soon as everyone realized that Formula 1 is not only about cars, it is about a consumer segment with a certain lifestyle, psychographics, and homogeneous behavioural characteristics, more brands from a wide range of different industries started to show a growing interest in sponsoring races. There were even tobacco companies giving all too happily their dollars to have their brand appear on the most popular car racing tours, although now this has faded away, after the increasing concerns of the negative effects of tobacco on health.
As the range of industries interested in sponsoring Formula 1 events expanded, the audiences of motorsports expanded too. And as the audiences got bigger and more heterogeneous, the likelihood of seeing more diverse brands as formal partners or sponsors of races grew significantly, to a point where now we even get to see gambling brands demonstratively displayed on races, cars or even on drivers’ overalls.
Pairing gambling brands with Formula 1 is an ideal way of leveraging a win-win situation. Of course, nobody can argue that F1 races need to partner with any gambling brand -or any brand for that matter- to gain access to new audiences. F1 grands prix are widely popular on their own. But the dollar money spent by the gambling companies is undoubtedly useful and often necessary to support the elite and the upscale nature of the sport.
However, even if Formula 1 doesn’t seem to need to reach the gambling demographics, it continues to be a big perk for the sport. Being able to access a diverse, new fan base advances the sport, expands the revenue streams, and brings in even more money to the already big pipeline of profits.
This is also the case for the side of the gambling operators as well. Online bookmakers, whether we are talking Australian betting sites or any other sportsbook offering wagering online, obtain significant gains from sponsoring Formula 1. These perks go beyond the grand exposure of their brands to the eyes of the global population or the potential for their brands to gain widespread popularity. Gambling companies and generally gambling brands have another critical gain, which is access to the audience of F1 which is not betting at the moment. And the truth is that this audience is really big.
Formula 1 betting is not as popular as F1 fandom is. This means that there is still an untapped segment of fans who are not bettors. Talking money, this means that gambling sites, sportsbooks or even betting platforms, have yet much to profit from this part of fans that has not yet been leveraged, betting-wise.
Sponsoring Formula 1 immediately brings closer the two worlds: that of F1 and that of sports betting. And for each of the two worlds, the advantages of gaining access to the other’s demographics are valuable. That’s the reason why lately we are witnessing more and more gambling brands sponsoring or partnering with popular F1 teams. Red Bull has secured a multi-billion dollar agreement with PokerStars, Sauber with Stake.com, and Formula 1 themselves with 188Bet. And these are only a few examples of what is going on!
