March 11 is a big day for NASCAR.
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing accounts for only a small percentage of legal sports betting in the United States. However, in North Carolina, the sanctioning body expects wagering on its races will be heavier than most other places.
NASCAR and North Carolina have a long history together, as the state is home to the famous Charlotte Motor Speedway and most of the major racing teams in the sport. The percentage of people interested in NASCAR in North Carolina is likely much higher than, say, New York.
So, when statewide online sports betting in North Carolina launches at noon on March 11, it could be a “top three” state for NASCAR by handle, according to Joseph Solosky, managing director of sports betting for the organization.
“Several of our top TV demographics... are in North Carolina,” Solosky told Covers in a recent interview. “So a lot of people who have been watching the races over the last few years haven't been able to bet on the sport just because it has been legalized yet. It's hard to make projections… but we anticipate North Carolina outpacing a lot of other states that are similarly sized like Ohio and Virginia and Arizona.”
We've got more issues on pit road!@KyleBusch is penalized for pitting outside of the box. pic.twitter.com/IdNp4iSEJ4
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 3, 2024
That would be big for NASCAR, whose share of the national handle in the U.S. is around 0.2%, Solosky said. In Virginia, for example, motorsports accounted for 0.17% of all wagering in the commonwealth from Jan. 2023 to Nov. 2023, according to a recent presentation to the state lottery board. Football, meanwhile, was 15.08% of handle.
Getting to a whole number in North Carolina would be big for NASCAR, even if that is still a “bit lofty,” Solosky said. However, NASCAR does have a relatively powerful friend in the Tar Heel State: DraftKings.
DraftKings and NASCAR are online sports betting partners in North Carolina. The Boston-based bookmaker is also the exclusive daily fantasy sports partner of NASCAR in the U.S. and Canada.
"We'll be certainly focused on North Carolina to start, but... this is a national partnership," Solosky said. "So you'll see a lot more of a collaboration between NASCAR and DraftKings starting, really, March 11."
Signed, sealed, delivered
NASCAR also plays a key role in North Carolina's sports betting scheme, as companies must have a "written designation agreement" with certain entities to qualify as an online operator. NASCAR is one of those entities, and so is Speedway Motorsports LLC, the owner of the Charlotte and North Wilkesboro racetracks.
North Carolina is the first state to pass a bill with NASCAR itself as a designated entity and not just the tracks, Solosky said. In Arizona, for instance, DraftKings is technically partnered with the NASCAR-owned Phoenix Raceway, not NASCAR itself.
“If they do well in their NASCAR offering, then we do well also when it comes to handle on NASCAR increasing and the growth that we want to see and then hope to see in other future states,” Solosky said.
There is indeed hope that legalization in North Carolina could put some wind in the sails of similar efforts in other NASCAR-friendly states, such as Georgia and South Carolina. If those states do not legalize this year, a full year of online wagering in North Carolina could prove persuasive.
Another win for Daytona Beach-based NASCAR has been the return of legal sports betting to Florida via the state’s Seminole Tribe and its Hard Rock Bet brand. This year, for the first time, NASCAR fans in the Sunshine State were able to legally wager on the Daytona 500, the sport’s biggest race.
“I think it will only put more pressure on those states to legalize in the next session or timeframe that they're allowed to,” Solosky said.
From matchups to microbetting
NASCAR has already gotten a bump in general awareness this year from the release of its Netflix show, “NASCAR: Full Speed.” That, combined with other media partnerships and promotion, could trickle down into the wagering markets.
Those markets have been a priority for Solosky and his team. After much work, matchup betting has now become a staple of wagering on the sport (i.e. Driver X vs. Driver Y, whoever places better wins) but now NASCAR is turning more attention to in-play action that other leagues benefit from.
Solosky said stick-and-ball-type sports can see as much as 50% of betting come from in-game wagering opportunities. For NASCAR, it’s around 10%.
Pricing the sport can be tricky for sportsbook operators, who may not even have full-time NASCAR traders who grasp the strategy of the sport and can set accurate odds at any given moment of a race.
To help remedy the lack of in-play action, NASCAR announced in August a partnership with technology firm nVenue “to develop in-race micro-betting markets and predictive content for race fans nationwide,” a press release said.
Under the terms of the multiyear deal, nVenue is working with NASCAR to provide in-race odds to sportsbook operators, including for “unique betting windows such as stage results, qualifying, pit-road betting opportunities and more.”
nVenue demonstrated its in-play product during February’s Daytona 500 and it was “a very, very impressive offering,” Solosky said. The markets offered were a lot of those bettors would see prerace, such as odds for top three, top five, and top 10, as well as stage winner outrights and head-to-head matchups.
“We hope to have a live offering from them into the sportsbooks for our fans by this summer,” Solosky said.
