Las Vegas Grand Prix betting mixed bag for sportsbooks

The Las Vegas Grand Prix was a mixed bag for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who finished fifth in Saturday night’s race on the Strip but clinched his fourth straight Formula One championship.

The race was also a mixed bag for Las Vegas sportsbooks a year after they set record betting handles, or amount of money wagered, on the inaugural F1 race on the Strip.

Station Sports and BetMGM again reported record handles for the F1 race as both sportsbooks shattered last year’s mark.

“The handle was phenomenal,” Red Rock Resort sportsbook director Chuck Esposito said. “It was, by far, the largest F1 handle we had this year and easily surpassed the record handle we had last year on it.”

BetMGM, which took the largest wager on last year’s race at $200,000 on Verstappen (who won as a -200 favorite), took twice as much money in bets on Saturday’s event. This year’s race was won in dominant fashion by pole winner George Russell of Mercedes, who closed as the +350 third favorite at Caesars Sportsbook.

Betting was way down at the Westgate SuperBook, however. It wrote only 35 percent of what it handled last year, according to vice president of risk Ed Salmons.

Caesars also saw a drop in the action. The book shattered its record handle on any auto race on the Las Vegas Grand Prix last year, when vice president of trading Craig Mucklow said it took well over $1 million in wagers. Mucklow said Caesars took in three times as much on the event as the Daytona 500, aka the Super Bowl of NASCAR.

Verstappen was the odds-on favorite last year, but closed as the +550 fourth choice at Caesars this year before Saturday’s race. He was behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, the +220 favorite, Sainz’s teammate Charles Leclerc, the +275 second choice, and Russell.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was the 9-1 fifth favorite, followed by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, a 22-1 long shot who drove from 10th place to second to give his team a sweep of the top two spots. Russell started on the pole and led every lap.

“The handle was not on par this year compared to last, primarily due to George Russell’s dominance, which affected in-play wagering on the event,” Mucklow said. “However, we did benefit from the race being more competitive this year compared to last year’s pre-race (odds).”

Sainz and Leclerc finished third and fourth, respectively.

Station won on the event, while the Westgate was a small loser overall.

“Getting Russell to win was a really good outcome for us,” Esposito said. “That was one of the best cases for us. Outside of some long shots, we clearly did not want Leclerc, Verstappen, Hamilton or (Alpine’s Pierre) Gasly.”

Esposito said the record handle was fueled by the city hosting the race for the second year in a row.

“Any event that’s here always generates a huge handle,” Esposito said. “Vegas is becoming, if it’s not already, the sports capital of the world, and having a huge event like F1 here with all the hype that surrounds it, I think it will get bigger and bigger every year.”

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.