The Formula 1 São Paulo GP, which takes place this weekend in Interlagos, will move, according to the estimate of the City of São Paulo, about R $ 1 billion (US$ 190m), activating mainly the tourism and business sectors. Like other sports, the world's top motorsport category is also included in betting platforms around the world.
In Brazil, sports betting has gained a lot of participation in recent years. However, those who understand that football is the only focus of attention of bettors are wrong. Formula 1 joined the list of the five sports with the highest volume of betting in the country.
"Although the Brazilian public love football and concentrate a huge amount of betting on this sport, Formula 1 has a very loyal audience and this is observable in betting, especially when it comes to taking into account that there are far fewer events of the sport in a season that, for example, basketball, football or volleyball games. And even with the fact that we already have the definition of the champion driver potentially decrease the interest of the public in the event, the Brazilian race increases the importance of the race for the local public," explains Ricardo Bianco Rosada, CMO of galera.bet.
Formula 1 will complete 22 Grands Prix in 2022. The number of events is small compared to other sports. A single football team in Brazil makes about 70 matches in a year. For this reason, Formula 1 is behind sports such as football, volleyball, basketball and tennis, but takes a leap in the dates of the São Paulo Grand Prix.
"The media on top of the São Paulo GP is very impactful and leads bettors to look much more for the sport. Consulting retroactive data to 2021, we identified that the race in Brazil had a demand 100% higher than any other GP last season. And what we can see and can be stressed is that Formula 1 has increasing interest among Brazilian bettors, maintaining an average of more than 10% monthly increase (always compared to the previous month)," reveals Daniel Trajano, commercial director of Esportes da Sorte.
Despite this growth in betting volume for this year, executives have made it clear that it is not possible to see whether Netflix's famous ‘Drive to Survive’ series has contributed to this in Brazil. "We have not been able to establish this relationship between the series and the increase in bets, because several other factors, between 2018 and the present year, 2022, may have contributed to this increase," adds Trajano.
"In Brazil, it is difficult to make this finding because, in addition to being a very young market in relation to sports betting, it is an audience that, for decades, has faithfully followed Formula 1. What is perceived abroad, however, is a relative increase in interest in the sport after the series. In some countries, such as England and the United States, the sport gained new fans - and therefore new players - after the event," adds Ricardo Bianco Rosada.
In early 2021, in the latest survey by Betway Insider, it was pointed out that the number of Formula One's viewers grew by more than 58% in the United States alone, reaching more than 1 billion. Nielsen data shows that more than 360,000 people who did not watch the races at the end of last season followed the contests this year after watching the ‘Drive To Survive’ series.
"People's interest in Formula One is not increasing by chance, but rather in an increasingly digital dissemination work done by Liberty Media. One of the biggest hits is precisely the Drive to Survive series. The goal of the program is to give a different look to the category," explains Bruno Maia, partner at Feel The Match and director of sports audiovisual content.
Public renewal is critical to the survival of any product. With sport, it's no different. In Formula 1, the content made with drivers and behind the scenes of races and teams serves to bring the audience closer to the reality of the category.
"Formula 1 has always had a different look from the public that watches it, and the same without a Brazilian driver holder or renowned as we had for many years, going from generation to generation, this DNA is strongly inserted in our country, and that's why the millionaire movement in various sectors of our economy is so expressive," says Renê Salviano, CEO of the marketing agency HeatMap.
Source: GMB
