Formula 1 has appointed Betway as the sport’s first Official Betting Operator in a multi-year deal, marking the first time the championship has granted an operator that designation at the global level.
The deal, announced by Formula 1, sees Super Group Limited (NYSE: SGHC) — the parent company of Betway — step up from its existing team-level presence in the sport to a championship-wide commercial partnership. Super Group entered Formula 1 in February 2025 as official betting and casino partner of Atlassian Williams Racing, with Betway and Jackpot City branding appearing on the Williams FW47 cars of Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.
The new arrangement gives Betway the Official Betting Operator designation across the sport itself, a role that did not exist in Formula 1 before this deal.
F1’s Expanding Betting Ecosystem
The appointment continues Formula 1’s deliberate effort to build out a structured betting commercial offering. In February 2025, the sport appointed ALT Sports Data as its Official Betting Data Supplier, tasked with developing real-time predictive analytics and proprietary odds solutions for the wagering industry. A dedicated betting section, F1 Bet, now sits within the official Formula 1 website. Formula 1 Chief Commercial Officer Emily Prazer has framed sports betting as “an increasingly important part of the global fan experience” in previous partnership announcements.
Global lottery operator Allwyn, which agreed a multi-year partnership with Formula 1 in 2025, also holds an official sponsor designation at championship level alongside its McLaren team partnership, indicating F1’s growing appetite for tiered gambling-adjacent commercial relationships.
The Betway deal adds an operator-facing layer to that structure. Where ALT Sports Data provides the data infrastructure and Allwyn brings lottery, Betway fills the sportsbook role — providing the sport with a regulated, licensed operator partner to anchor its betting marketing strategy across a global audience.
Super Group’s Strategic Foothold
For Super Group, the elevation from team sponsor to official championship partner represents a significant commercial upgrade within the same property. The Williams Racing deal in February 2025 was the company’s first foray into Formula 1, and the sport-wide designation expands that footprint considerably.
Formula 1 reaches a fanbase of more than 750 million people globally, with races broadcast across 200-plus territories. That scale has made it an increasingly attractive platform for betting operators seeking regulated-market brand exposure, particularly as Betway has retrenched from the US market and focused its expansion efforts on regulated international jurisdictions.
Super Group reported full-year 2024 revenue of approximately €1.66bn, up 18% year-on-year, with adjusted EBITDA rising by more than 50% to a range of €387m to €392m. The Formula 1 platform positions Betway to activate that commercial capacity across 24 race weekends per season, with the 2026 season opening on 8 March in Melbourne, Australia.
The appointment also aligns with a broader trend of regulated betting operators securing high-visibility sports partnerships as they compete for market share in a tightening regulatory environment. Allwyn’s $2.5bn acquisition of PrizePicks in September 2025 demonstrated the scale of capital that gambling-adjacent companies are deploying in sports-facing commercial positions, while operators including Stake have pursued motorsport title sponsorships at the Sauber/Audi team.
Regulatory Backdrop
The deal arrives at a time when several European regulators are tightening restrictions on gambling advertising, including Denmark’s forthcoming advertising ban and intensified scrutiny of sports sponsorship by gambling brands in markets such as Spain and Italy. F1’s global reach means Betway’s official designation will need to be managed carefully across jurisdictions where operator visibility in broadcast sport carries compliance obligations.
How Formula 1 activates the partnership in restricted markets — and whether the official designation comes with geo-specific activation constraints — remains to be confirmed. Denmark’s sports betting revenue fell 46% in the lead-up to its advertising ban, illustrating the commercial stakes of market-by-market regulatory divergence for operators with pan-European exposure.
Super Group operates Betway under licences across multiple regulated European markets. Its 2025 Williams Racing deal included branding appearing on cars raced in markets with differing advertising frameworks, a compliance challenge that will only expand with a sport-wide designation covering all 24 race weekends. The company has not disclosed specific compliance arrangements for the new deal. Betway has been actively extending its regulated market footprint, including recent African market entries alongside content partners.
Financial terms of the multi-year agreement have not been disclosed. The 2026 Formula 1 season begins with the Australian Grand Prix on 8 March.
Source: Formula 1
