Popular online gambling operator, 188Bet, become the official sponsor for the F1 championship in Asia. This deal was brokered by Interregional Sports Group (ISG), who are the leading sponsorship agency for Formula 1. This is yet another deal that sees a gambling firm being advertised in a sporting event. 188Bet are a popular online betting site, that offer both sports betting and casino betting. You can play at New Jersey online casinos, where you can find the best odds for these events.
Viewers will see 188Bet feature exclusively throughout the Asian market, during each F1 season all the way through to when the contract ends, which is 2024. The advertisements will appear on virtual trackside advertising, for the races that are broadcasted live. The sponsor will also feature across a range of F1’s social accounts and other digital platforms.
It gets even better for 188Bet, as they will also have their own exclusive ownership of the F1 predictor app for the Asia sports betting market and will be able to get ahold of F1 betting data that is provided by Sportradar. The predictor app is called F1 Play.
188Bet did announce that last year they were going to stop their operations in the UK and IRE market, which has then led them to look elsewhere, the Asia market being one of their areas that they want to target, due to the size of the industry and how fast it is growing. The competition of the UK market was also another interesting factor that put the betting site off continuing, they saw it as becoming overcrowded and therefore wanted no more to do with it.
188Bet had been in the UK market since 2006 and were very competitive, they had a lot of popularity. The parent company of this gambling site are called Annatar Limited and they have said that the move to leave the UK market and enter the Asia market was a “commercial decision in a very competitive marketplace”. They also didn’t like how the regulations in the market were becoming stricter and was another aspect that really puts them off.
In fairness, we expect to see more companies like this starting to drift away from the UK market, due to the fact that the rules are changing, making it more difficult for bookmakers and casinos to excel in the industry. The Asia market is a growing one and targeting that is certainly a decision that was a no brainer as they want to get in early in a growing market. The US market is another growing market where gambling is coming more legal, soon, it is not just going to be Las Vegas where gambling is excelled.
