Anyone can go to an online sportsbook and find an abundance of pre-match market options for the likes of football, cricket and rugby. They are great examples of major sports that are well-covered by the bookies, but the reach of modern online betting extends well beyond the static pre-event markets.
Live betting has been revolutionary in the context of punters having even more wagering options open up for them. With live odds updated on the fly based on what is unfolding in an event, it’s a dynamic form of sports betting. But do the live options stack up when it comes to F1?
Are Bookies Doing Enough For F1
When you visit top bookmakers — like those reviewed onLegalbet.uk, a platform that analyses legal operators and their betting lines to highlight the strongest options — you'll find plenty of wagering opportunities. Football, basketball, and other major sports often come with thousands of markets. F1 has its fair share of markets too, from outright winners to fastest laps and qualifying head-to-heads. But the depth of coverage still falls short when compared to the major sports.
Punters can land on any legal betting platform and be fairly guaranteed to find numerous live football markets on an active match. So why not for F1 races?
Online bookmakers have to produce a balance when it comes to supply and demand. They aren’t going to expend a lot of unnecessary resources on producing markets that ultimately are going to attract little interest and are potentially volatile in terms of profit margins. But F1 is a globally recognised, major sport and not some lesser niche.
F1 Perfect For Live Betting
F1 actually fits perfectly into live betting because there are long periods without too much happening. There’s not a great deal of movement lap from lap in terms of overtaking and speed changes, which gives punters plenty of time to assess options.
Overtaking manoeuvres are dynamic moments, and pit stop strategy can influence a race which could be utilised for live betting markets. The benefit of live betting on a race as opposed to pre-event wagering is that punters can see the track speed and performances of cars.
Underneath all that, there is still jeopardy to favour bookmakers running live F1 markets, due to the constant threat of an incident throwing the race into disarray. But very often, live F1 betting opportunities fall short. Even Formula One's director of commercial partnerships Jonny Haworth mentions this problem. In an interview in March 2025, he said,
"We're on a journey in the betting space at the moment. I think we make up 0.4 per cent of the overall global betting handle, which is pretty crazy for a sport the size of Formula One and with a sport that has low latency data at a high volume—that is what drives betting."
Pre-Race vs Live
The betting site that a punter uses for F1 betting can very much influence options, because some operators have more expansive coverage than others. While not available at every bookie, the following is an example of an exciting range of pre-race markets that can be unveiled with a bit of research:
●Podium Finish
●Top 6 Finish
●Points Finish
●Race Winning Margin
●Safety Car
●1st Driver To Retire
●Not To Be Classified
Lagging Behind
Those above are prime examples of what can be done by bookmakers in regard to pre-race F1 betting. But during any race, punters will likely not see anything near the kind of variety that’s available pre-race. Live F1 options are typically limited to race winner, podium finish, the fastest lap and points finish places.
But there is scope for much more, like on what lap a certain driver will take a pit stop, the next driver to pit, and by what margin a driver will finish ahead of their teammate for example.
Primed for Better
F1 is a data-driven sport that is all readily accessible in real-time while a race is unfolding. It’s the kind of data that could help support excellent live in-play markets as well as offering insights for race viewers, because of immediate access to insights like sector times, timing feeds and commentary about strategy.
The current state of F1 live betting feels like a race under a safety car - the potential for explosive, exciting action is there, but it’s just been reined in. In-play driver match-ups, predictions on a certain driver gaining or losing a position within a set number of laps and even which driver will set the fastest lap on a specific lap are ways that F1 live betting could be bolstered.
Will Things Change?
Compared to maybe five or ten years ago, things have progressed in terms of live betting on F1. But there is always the feeling that even more could be done, and new avenues explored to bring better options forward.
The sport is huge, with fans tuning in from all around the world, and race attendances are always strong. So it’s hard to imagine that, coupled with the popularity of mobile betting, that the demand for better live F1 betting wouldn’t be there.
The need for innovation in live betting was summed up nicely by Jonny Haworth, who said that a new development of an “engaging betting product” would offer multiple ways for people to bet on the sport.