Why Is Horse Racing Bigger than Formula One In The Gambling Industry?
Formula One is one of the biggest and best sports in the world and attracts millions of fans worldwide, both in person and by viewership.
However, one of the strangest parts of the gambling industry is the lack of racing representation; with the only racing sport that is prominent in the industry being horse racing.
Now, when we mention horse racing as a big front in the gambling industry, we aren’t doing the sport justice. The impact that horse racing had on the gambling industry cannot be understated and this leads us to our first point in the question that we pose today.
Historical Significance
Horse racing has been a long-standing tradition and has had centuries as a dominant force in the gambling industry. Going back hundreds of years, you can see the impact the sport has had on sports betting as a whole and because horse racing has been a part of the culture in many countries around the world, like the US, the UK, Australia and the list goes on, the sport is more widely accepted as a betting sport.
With Formula One and other sports, we have only seen the legalisation and the popularity of this sport grow over the last decade or so, which is a huge player in the popularity of the respective sports.
The Events
Although we prefer Formula One, the sport itself lacks frequency compared to horse racing which is one of the busiest sports in the world. Whereas with Formula One, you may get 20 races a year, horse racing has major events spread throughout the year with multiple events in a day, as well as general races nearly daily. You could go onto a betting site right this second and look at Boylesports horse racing odds and find multiple horse races to bet on but with F1, the opportunities are fewer.
Global Reach
We have briefly mentioned the global reach of the sport when talking about the cultural impact. However, the global reach goes deeper than this and in both of their cases, could hurt the sport in different ways.
One of the biggest things for horse racing is the animal cruelty argument. As horse racing is one of the most popular sports in the world there are a lot of eyes on the sport and this brings more attention to the animal cruelty argument. With horses being forced to race and being whipped for speed, there are a lot of protests that call for this sport to stop.
On the F1 side, you have the global warming argument with the stop oil protesters targeting the sport as they believe it is harmful to the environment. This gets less attention than the animal cruelty argument and with Formula E being an electric version of the sport, it shows the environment is something they do care about.
The Ease Of Each Sport
When new bettors go to bet on a sport, it is important that they have some knowledge on the sport that they are placing their money on. With horse racing, it is very easy for newcomers to bet, with the odds being a nice indicator for players with a lack of knowledge.
However, with F1, getting into the sport is a challenge in itself and with all of the tracks, team strategies and the racer’s history, you need a deeper understanding before you should place your money on a driver.
Will F1 Ever Be As Big?
Formula One by itself is a bigger sport than horse racing and as time goes on, it will only continue to grow whereas horse racing is on a downward trajectory. Because of this, we think that one day we will see Formula 1 as one of the biggest sports in the world for gamblers and we personally cannot wait for this to happen!
