Online North Carolina Sports betting launching statewide isn’t just a big development for people who want to bet on the Tar Heels or Blue Devils in the coming weeks. It’s also important for the sports teams and leagues partnering with sportsbooks. That includes NASCAR, which is partnering with DraftKings in the state.
The sanctioning body for stock car racing is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida. However, you can easily make the case that NASCAR’s heart is in the Tar Heel State. There are two major offices in the Charlotte area as well as the NASCAR Hall of Fame in the Queen City. It also doesn’t hurt that research shows North Carolina is home to more NASCAR fans than any other state. Learn how to bet on NASCAR with BetCarolina.com.
Helping NASCAR leverage legalized sports betting to increase fan engagement and grow the sport’s audience is Joe Solosky. The Charlotte area resident just celebrated his third anniversary with the organization, where he is the managing director of sports betting.
Solosky recently spoke with BetCarolina.com – your home for the best North Carolina sportsbook promos – about next week’s launch and what it means for NASCAR. The following are excerpts from that conversation, which have been edited for brevity.
This is the first of two pieces. The second, which focuses on NASCAR’s efforts to attract younger fans and protect the integrity of the sport, will run on Friday.
Q&A With NASCAR's Joe Solosky
Q: For North Carolina, what can NASCAR fans expect to see from sportsbooks regarding NASCAR events?
JS: “I think we're launching at a really good time in North Carolina because sportsbooks have really paid more attention to NASCAR over the last few years, and you see it in the offerings. I've even seen from the Daytona 500 (held on Feb. 19) to Pennzoil 400 (held last Sunday) sportsbooks increasing their offering week by week.
“So, what fans should be expecting to see is a ton of different ways you can wager on the sport. From the most popular ones, which are who's going to win the race, who's going to come in top five, who's going to come in top 10, driver matchups, all the way down to things like average speed of the race – I saw that market being offered today – and two drivers to finish in the top five.
“The options are growing, which is something that we take as a point of pride, because the demand is there for the sportsbooks to offer those markets.”
Q: What are NASCAR’s expectations for sports betting in one of its most popular markets?
JS: “I think it has the potential to be a top three state in terms of in terms of handle. Right now, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Michigan are all states in that top four. Ohio is a very good comp to North Carolina because the population size, and several of our top 10 TV markets are in North Carolina.”
Q: What is the handle share in those states?
JS: “Illinois, actually, is really the only state that you can get a good handle share on, and we're somewhere around .1% It's a small number, and we know that. That has been growing year over year. In a state like North Carolina, I hope to get to an integer level, I suppose, and not a decimal place. I think that potential there just because of how NASCAR crazy the state of North Carolina is.”
(Writer’s note: Data from the Illinois Gaming Board shows 716,626 wagers were made last year on all motorsports, which encompasses NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1 and other sanctioned events. The wagers on those events totaled $11.5 million, and the total handle across all sports for the year was $11.6 billion. BetCarolina.com projects North Carolina’s total handle for the first year will be around $6.5 billion. If NASCAR reaches a 1% share, that would equal roughly $65 million in wagers.)
