NASCAR Fans In Ohio Can Legally Wager On Racing Starting On New Years Day

New Year’s Day is almost here. Ohio residents will have even more to celebrate this year as legalized sports betting officially kicks off at 12:01AM on January 1st. 2023. Racing fans will be able place bets on NASCAR, Formula 1 (F1) and many other car series.

F1 and NASCAR start their 2023 seasons in February, and some betting markets are already live on Bet365 Ohio and most of the other major legal sportsbooks. Bettors can already place wagers on the F1 World Championship and the NASCAR Cup Series Championship. Additionally some books have lines posted for the Daytona 500 on February 19th and the Bahrain Grand Prix on February 23rd

Ohio sportsbooks will offer many ways to bet on motorsports, including all of the following betting types.

Racing Betting Types

 

Outright Winner

This resembles moneyline betting in other sports, though it is a “future”. It is generally the most popular motorsports bet. Players just need to pick the winner of the race, and with so many choices many bettors opt to take more than one crack at it.

DraftKings has the following odds up for the Daytona 500

  • Ryan Blaney +1200
  • Kyle Larson +1200
  • Danny Hamlin +1200
  • Chase Elliot +1200
  • William Byron +1400
  • Joey Logano +1400
  • Ross Chastain +1600
  • Kyle Busch +1800
  • Bubba Wallace +1800
  • Austin Cindric +1800
  • Tyler Reddick +2000
  • Brad Keselowski +2000

The rest of the prospective field has odds of +2500 or greater.

Austin Cindric won the 2022 Daytona 500, with Bubba Wallace finishing second and Chase Briscoe taking third. In the other Cup race at Daytona in August, Austin Dillon won, with Tyler Reddick second and Cindric third. Kyle Larson actually had pole position in both Daytona races but finished only 32nd in the Daytona 500 and completed just 14 laps and ended up last in the August Daytona race. That leads into the next way to wager on NASCAR.

DraftKings also has Formula 1 Bahrain odds up

  • Max Verstappen -110
  • Lewis Hamilton +275
  • Charles LeClerc +450
  • George Russell +550
  • Sergio Perez +1200
  • Carlos Sainz +1400

Everyone else starts +10000 or higher

 

Pole Position

The events all have time trials in the leadup to the race itself. The drivers with the fastest laps in the qualifiers make it to the race. The sportsbooks post odds on who will finish with the fastest lap and thus qualify for pole position. The Daytona odds as well as the F1 Bahrain odds and those in other race series will come out closer to race week.

 

Podium

In both F1 and NASCAR, the top three finishers make the “podium”. The Ohio sportsbooks will post odds on all the racers landing in that top three. Clearly bettors will not get the big plus money odds that they can on choosing the outright winner, but it is a very good way to get some action on some chosen drivers. In the Daytona 500 for example, the +1200 favorites might have odds in the +400 to +600 range to finish on the podium. Verstappen podium odds in F1 Bahrain will post for something like -400.

 

Cup Winner

NASCAR and F1 both crown seasonal champs, and betting odds are up for each series. Here are the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Champion odds at Bet365.

  • Chase Elliot +600
  • Kyle Larson +600
  • Danny Hamlin +800
  • Ryan Blaney +1000
  • William Byron +1000
  • Joey Logano +1000
  • Ross Chastain +1200
  • Martin Truex Jr +1200
  • Christopher Bell +1200
  • Kyle Busch +1400
  • Tyler Reddick +1400
  • Kevin Harvick +1600

Every other driver sits at +2500 or higher. Logano won the Cup in 2022, as well as in 2018. Chastain, Bell, Elliot and Hamlin rounded out the 2022 top five. Elliot is also a recent champ, having won the Cup in 2020.

Max Verstappen won the 2022 Formula 1 Drivers Championship fairly handily, totalling 454 points vs 308 points for Charles Leclerc in second. Sergio Perez, George Russell, Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top six. They all sit among the 2023 Cup favorites at Bet365 Ohio.

 

  • Verstappen -138
  • Lewis Hamilton +300
  • Leclerc +500
  • Russell +800
  • Sainz +2500
  • Perez +2500

No one else is deemed to have much of a shot as the next driver has odds of +12500.

Drivers Head to Head

No need to pick a race winner or top 3 finisher here as the wager just depends on one racer vs another. It is identical to just picking the winner of a game though it is all within the overall race context. The best analog is a head-to-head bet in a golf tournament. There are no markets up yet for specific races, but Bet365 does have odds up for “Season Match Bets” on a handful of Formula 1 matchups. Here are some of them involving the group of favorites.

  • Leclerc -275 vs Sainz +200
  • Hamilton -175 vs Russell +125
  • Verstappen -900 vs Perez +500

 

Live and Prop Bets

Expect the Ohio sportsbooks to offer fun props as races get closer. Look for plays like “most laps led” as well as props on who will actually lead the most laps and maybe over/unders on how many laps a certain racer will lead. There are also always bets available on fastest laps, by both the individual who clocks that lap and the time of that lap. Players can also wager on the team of the winning racer and the car brand itself. NASCAR racers drive either Chevrolets, Fords or Toyotas.

The books will also have live betting available during races. It works well with motorsports as the day fills with natural breaks during the caution flags.

 

Start Your Engines

There are all sorts of fun and hopefully profitable ways to bet on motorsports. The NASCAR Cup Series and the Formula One Drivers series are the biggest circuits and get the most betting action. There are other popular series however like the IndyCar series, featuring of course the Indy 500, as well as the NASCAR Xfinity and Craftsman Truck circuits. Once February rolls around the sportsbooks will kick into high gear for the racing season!