Driving NASCAR’s growth
EVENTS
JOSEPH SOLOSKY: RACING AHEAD WITH FAN ENGAGEMENT JULY’S SBC SUMMIT NORTH AMERICA conference and
tradeshow in New Jersey will focus on the converging worlds of sports betting, igaming, professional sports, entertainment, and broadcast media. Ahead of the event, SBC Leaders caught up with Joseph Solosky, Managing Director of Sports Betting at NASCAR, to find out what that convergence means for the sport
BY MARTYN ELLIOTT
I
n the days before PASPA was struck down, there was a sizeable grey market for NFL and NBA betting in the US, but offshore
operators and barroom bookies saw little action on NASCAR races. So it was perhaps surprising that NASCAR was one of the first professional sports to recognise the full potential of legal sports betting as
a fan engagement tool, particularly as it had been relatively slow to embrace the daily fantasy sports boom. Four years on from that momentous US Supreme Court decision and NASCAR is a sport that looks very comfortable with the idea of betting. It can count BetMGM, WynnBET, Penn National Gaming, The Action Network, Sportradar and Genius Sports among its partners, and is involved in the AGA’s Have A Game Plan responsible betting initiative. It has even helped to facilitate market access for operators via its speedways in Virginia and Arizona. In fact, it is so at home with betting
sbcmagazine.com 89
