Sports betting and gaming group Entain shared Friday compiled data showing “a clear surge in popularity” when it comes to Formula 1 bets, with a record-breaking year on the cards for 2022.
Data from Entain between 2018 and 2022 reveals the total number of Entain customers betting on Formula 1 increased by 50% during the four-year period. The total number of bets on each season has also grown by 30%.
Most customers who bet on Formula 1 during this period were from the UK (35%), Brazil (17%), Germany (17%) and Spain (5%). The company has seen an 18% increase from 2021 to 2022 in the number of UK customers betting on Formula 1, with four races still yet to go this season.
Additionally, Entain announced that the British Grand Prix in July 2022 saw a 121% increase compared with 2018, and there has been a four-fold rise in the number of bets on a winner at the race.
Dom Grounsell, Chief Commercial Officer at Entain, said: “Our customers are finding Formula 1 an increasingly exciting sport to participate in – numbers are growing year on year, in line with the popularity of the sport.”
“This has no doubt been helped by the hugely successful Netflix Formula 1 Drive to Survive series,” further noted Grounsell. “We’re looking forward to the next stage of Formula 1’s exhilarating journey, and with our bench-strength of global sporting brands, are perfectly placed to keep our customers entertained and close to the action.”
These trends replicate the spike in popularity the sport has seen across streaming and multimedia platforms. According to Formula 1, it was the fastest-growing major sports league in terms of follower growth in 2021. Followers on social media platforms increased 40% to 49.1 million, with video views up to 50% to 7 billion and total engagement, up 74% to 1.5 billion.
