NASCAR Determined to Cash in on Sports Gambling

• Incremental growth in the sport has seen since the Daytona 500 is on par with new states legalizing sports betting

• In regards to sponsorship, NASCAR doesn’t allow a team or a driver to be associated with an offshore or illegal sportsbooks.

• Analysts have seen a jump in NASCAR betting since online betting began in North Carolina on March 11.

Since a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling made gambling a states’ rights issue, 38 states and the District of Columbia have legalized sports betting, and NASCAR knows if it wants to use it to attract new fans it must capitalize during the NFL’s offseason.

“When we get to September, October, November, we’re competing against football, which we know is by far the most popular sport to bet on,” says Joe Solosky, NASCAR’s managing director sports betting. “So, the prime months for us to capitalize on the general sports betting audience, not just the NASCAR fan, is from now through August. That’s where we saw a lot of the growth last year, from the month of May to August.”

Solosky noted that in the first two months of the 2024 season betting on NASCAR was up 50%, which he described as “really impactful” for the sport.

“States like Mississippi, Nevada and New York have tripled their volume on NASCAR year over year, which is really impressive,” Solosky says.

Online betting began in North Carolina on March 11, 2024. Sportsbook advertisements air constantly on various television stations in the Charlotte, N.C., area where most of the NASCAR teams are based as well as the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

“Depending on the sportsbook, North Carolina is either the first, second or fourth most, … biggest state in terms of NASCAR betting volume in the first month of legalization, which is really impressive,” Solosky says. “For it to be a top five state for those sportsbooks … shows that the North Carolina effect is real. Having a large fan base here (North Carolina) leads to more engagement in the sport.

“I think the growth that we’re seeing this year is partly North Carolina legalizing even if it’s just three weeks of numbers that we have. I think it’s more the sportsbooks investing more resources into the sport and offering more options for people to wager on NASCAR. Depending on the sportsbook, their offerings on NASCAR have increased anywhere from 10 to 50%.”