In this interview with CalvinAyre.com’s Becky Liggero, ISG Group CEO Chris Buckley talks about how the growing Formula 1 is creating new opportunities for sports betting.
Since its inaugural season in 1950, Formula 1 has been ranked as the world’s most prestigious motor racing competition, not to mention the world’s most popular annual sporting series. Europe has been the sport’s traditional base, but the FIA Formula One World Championship is a global one—with 11 of the 21 races in the 2018 season taking place outside Europe.
In September, Formula 1 tapped sports media specialist Interregional Sports Group (ISG) to produce an F1 betting offering—giving the fans new ways to get closer to the sport they love.
“Formula 1 now is looking at making the race more competitive, looking at making the elements of race more competitive, making it more exciting for the fans,” ISG CEO Chris Buckley told CalvinAyre.com. “They already have some like half a billion fans worldwide, this is not a small sport.”
The first-of-its-kind partnership for the sport will see Formula 1, ISG and Sportradar “work with data taken directly from the track on race weekends to bring F1 into line with other major global sports by enabling the development of all new in-play betting markets during Grands Prix.”
Buckley explained, “We’ll be bringing betting brands, big betting brands around the world, bringing their brands into the races themselves so the races are broadcast all over the world, and in different regions around the world you’ll see major betting brands appearing trackside for the first time ever in Formula 1.”
The second element involves the sport’s data and keeping the integrity of Formula 1 racing intact, according to the ISG executive.
“Formula 1 is probably the greatest sport when it comes to data, the technology behind Formula 1 is phenomenal and so huge amounts of data were created every second of every race so we’ll be working with Sportradar, a partner of ours, to help to develop products for the betting market, to create betting and winning opportunities around Formula 1,” Buckley said. “At the same time Sportradar will be driving integrity services for Formula 1, so they’ll be monitoring the betting markets to make sure that the integrity of the sports is kept intact.”
