today gaming america is speaking to joseph soloski the managing director of sports betting at nascar as the league positions itself to use betting to enlarge its viewership we were able to talk to mr solowski about methods deployed to achieve this vision mr solowski thank you for sitting with us today my pleasure thanks for having me uh my first question i guess is a sort of a personal one but uh could you tell me perhaps a bit of your personal history and how you uh got to arrive at your current role in the industry please yeah for sure um it's uh you know i have a lot of people ask me that question especially trying to start out and get into sports betting and my background not is not necessarily replicable i wouldn't try and and and do what i did but i really kind of fell backwards into sports betting um i was in my prayer career was in military and the intelligence community in the u.s and i moved overseas because my wife i was stationed in germany so when i moved over there i saw how this was in 2015 saw how mature sports betting was and just kind of a common practice uh you know there were places where you can uh kiosks where you could place a bet at an epl game for instance which just kind of blew my mind um so i started looking at different firms that were hiring um and uh i started working for sport radar in november of 2015 uh selling data for them in africa asia and europe and then in 2018 when sports betting legalized i stayed with sport radar and moved to the us and sold data to us bookmakers and then this opportunity came along for nascar and it was uh a dream job for me and started that march first last year so i've been here we've been with the league for just over a year now cool uh moving on to the league i suppose because nascar as i understand it is a relative newcomer to uh betting i mean legal betting is relatively new to the us and nascar is sort of new to uh betting in general i was wondering uh just sort of the technical aspects of betting on nascar but what are the variables and factors that come into play when you place a bet on a nascar race yeah so the chief market for for nascar in the most popular market right now is outright race winner right so um people do a lot of research on on drivers performance at the upcoming track um lap times performance the previous week how they performed uh at tracks that are similar to the upcoming uh to the upcoming track so you know there's a lot of research done on the driver level on the track level past performance uh predictive performance um but you know really it's it comes down to the data so nascar is unique in the sense that there are no stoppages in play um like you know when there's a commercial going on on the broadcast there still is action going on so you have to rely on a trusted feed so the nascar timing and scoring feed is really the building blocks of what um our sports book partners and even non-sportsbook partners who take data from genius sports um that's what they rely on to provide accurate reliable um and and fast uh uh data provision sure um and i mentioned that you know most uh a large majority of sports betting in america is not nascar i'm wondering uh and this is a very broad question so you could take it in any number of directions but uh how are you aiming to grow the market share of nascar in the sports betting world in the united states today yeah you're right um nascar is is uh relatively low on on the handle side uh i think a lot of that is you know and even in uh before 2018 before the repeal of paspa um obviously there was offshore offshore betting happening in the u.s to the tune of you know hundreds of billions of dollars depending on some estimates um and there was even less handle happening on nascar as i said you really it requires a um a true official data feed to power it um and you know being an offshore uh offshore markets don't really provide those you know in-depth data feeds so a lot of people weren't betting on nascar whereas people were betting on mlb nfl nba kind of the traditional stick and ball sports so when one sports betting was legalized people were already in some sense betting on these other leagues so nascar was a little bit behind the um behind the pack there but really it's it's education it's awareness and we're doing that with not only as a league but also kind of at arm's distance with our sports betting operating partners who will run promos around nascar they will introduce new markets which has happened a lot this year um around nascar sports betting that makes it more of a seamless transition from betting on the nfl to betting on nascar so you're right a huge goal of ours if not the chief goal is to increase handle on the sport because we think an increase in handle will increase fan engagement and ultimately attendance and to grow our fan base sure i have to ask have you seen things improving or increasing over the last year absolutely from 2020 to 2021 um we had two and a half times growth and handle again starting from from a low number right still still very impressive but we were starting from a low number in 2020. what i'm really proud about is uh our growth from from last year to this year um across our uh authorized gaming operators which are official sports book partners at nascar um they've they did more handle in the first two races alone this year than all of february and march combined um so we are off to a really good start and of course it's not just you know nascar nascar organically growing there's part of that as well it's also worth acknowledging that more states have have launched since last year so we do you know consider that in effect in into account when we talk about the growth but we've even outpaced the growth in terms of total addressable markets so there is an organic part of this as well um and do you see is nascar see uh the introduction of the betting aspect as a means to uh grow viewership overall and do you think that's been working yeah i you know that's that's really my strategy in this role and that's what i believe so um like i said handle is something that we can we can directly measure right in terms of um growth year over year and interest in the sport from a betting perspective and converting fans maybe the nfl or nba to nascar but that is cameron the ultimate goal for us um in the organization long term is you know i i view it as as simple as um you know because an operator is offering a interesting market on nascar or presenting in a way that is is similar to how nfl is presented or nba um they may bet on the sport and because you bet on nascar you may watch the race you probably will watch the race to see how your bet turns out and then you watch the race it might be the first time you're exposed to it and you're like wow i want to see that in person so you go to a race and i can tell you from firsthand experience cameron i went to my first race just in june of last year and you know in addition to working for the league i've become a fan of nascar myself uh from just being at the track and experiencing all that all that comes with going to a nascar race so it's really about using betting as a means of getting someone who may not be into nascar get getting him into watching nascar and then going to one of our races and becoming a true fan sure and i i did want to ask is like i'm i'm from new york myself and i we have this idea in new york that nascar is much more popular say in the south or indiana of course and the middle west uh would you say that um that betting is more popular in these traditional depending on nascar is more popular in the sort of traditional heartlands of nascar yeah well it's it's honestly hard to say yet because the i would say the kind of nascar country states um a bulk of them anyway have not legalized you know the southeast has been a little bit behind the curve or just taking up legislation at a later time so you know this year hopefully georgia alabama and north carolina will will legalize um where we'll see um you know kind of the the southern the southeast home of nascar if that increases increases interest and increased his handle in betting we anticipate it will um but you know surprisingly or not not surprisingly we've seen a lot of interest in terms of handle from states like pennsylvania from new york from michigan indiana like you said so to have this growth year over year in states where like i said i grew up in new york and wasn't really introduced to nascar much as as a kid but there still is a lot of betting happening there so we're encouraged to see that and when we you know do and when we do as a country legalize in states like georgia alabama kentucky texas we will see growth as well because that is you know more of the traditional nascar nascar country where we run our races etc is there any is there any uh impending legislation specifically or uh impending legalizations that you're following closely at nascar yeah absolutely um in some of the states we just mentioned actually so north carolina um i believe that they're they're on their way to legalizing this year um it's something that we've been very involved with as as a league there are other teams and leagues who have been involved with that as well in the state of north carolina um they i believe they passed in the senate last year they did pass in the senate last year they passed a few committees so that'll be a couple less hurdles when they go back into session i believe this may um for the for the house to pass and hopefully um goes you know hopefully passes this year uh georgia's another one um teams and leagues have been involved in that discussion uh for a couple of years so it looks like there's they're making good headway it's something that we're following really closely um you know there's obviously uh uh atlanta motor speedway um there and road atlanta as well so from a from a racing interest um you know it's a state that uh i think will present itself well to um you know in the introduction of nascar sports betting legally sure sure um i wanted to move on a little bit uh to nascar's partnerships with sportsbooks i know you partnered i'm not mistaken with penn national win bet bet mgm and public sportsbook uh there and i was wondering uh you know what what did these agreements between sportsbooks and nascar look like uh what is what is a beneficial part partner and what do you hope to achieve out of these partnerships yeah so you know we when we look at sportsbooks to partner with we're very strategic about we want to work with a brand who really is passionate about nascar and what i love about all of the books that you mentioned who are our partners um they they're all vying to be and they want to be and they have made actions to be the place where nascar bettors go to bed which is fantastic um that's that's the type of partner that we want to work with and on the opposite side of that we want to deliver value to them as well um you know we're we're always worried about from a partnership marketing and sales side to not dilute brands and not dilute our partners so um that's giving each of our sportsbook operators verticals that they can operate in where you know there's a clear messaging that you know this operator owns this this piece of content or uh part of nas bar from a sports betting angle so that's really what we try to provide value to in our operators and what we hope to achieve is really a um a symbiotic relationship where nascar is helping to grow their brand in the states that they're operating in and that they help grow nascar from a handle perspective from a fan engagement education perspective through their sports book offerings on the sport and are there more partnerships on the horizon perhaps you can't speak uh details but are you looking to expand in that regard yeah we are um you know there again it's all about it's all about one working with brands who want to work with us and there are brands who want to work with us um especially after the growth that we've seen this year the great racing that we've seen early on this season um i think that there's just more buzz about the sport so we you know even are getting inbound now from operators wanting to work with us so i think before um the end of the end of the year um and certainly even sooner than that you'll see us engaging in more partnerships from the sportsbook angle i guess you've proven you you can monetize the uh the model yeah for sure i mean there there's we don't hide the fact that there's a revenue opportunity here as well for us um again chiefly uh the the goal for us is increasing fan engagement um but there is a a revenue model that works well for us and the operators because in any agreement that we have our operating partners get um you know hospitality assets email database access um marketing spend assets across nascar.com our social channels etc sure um i also want to ask about another partnership you guys have with the american gaming association and uh from what i read this is sort of to address responsible gaming but i was wondering if you could just elaborate a bit on the partnership and uh what you get out of it and if it's been successful yeah i i really value our value our relationship with um with the american gaming association and what we built even before i came on board in the last year i've been here that team is very passionate about responsible uh gaming and gambling um as are we you know this is something that is new to a certain percentage of our fans i would say a large majority of our fans it's new to them right so we want to make sure that they're armed with all the resources that they have to that responsibility bet responsibly but within their limits setting a budget and that's what have a game to have a game plan initiative is all about at the american gaming association um and tied to that as well uh integrity is is you know first and foremost in nascar from sports betting all the way all the way through everything we do at nascar um so we you know the first deal that we signed when sports betting in this legalized sports betting space was the sport radar and the integrity side um and that is you know for internal monitoring of suspicious betting activities um which you know sport radar notifies us of every week and knock would there have been none so far on nascar and you know we're doing everything that we can in sport radar is doing everything that they can to make sure that that continues to be the case sure uh wrapping things up and i i sort of always ask this question at the end but where would you like to see betting at nascar uh in 18 months from now yeah so i'd really like to to see betting on nascar as something very similar to what you see is betting on nfl nba mlb you know part of the the percentage of fans who do want to bet on the sport i want it to be an easy seamless enjoyable experience for them so one of the ways that we're going about this actually is you know as i mentioned earlier one of the most popular markets if not the most popular market is the outright winner in fact it is by far the most most popular market right now um what we've what we've seen with our operators this year and even operators in the space generally is a focus more on head-to-head driver match-up betting um so you know a head-to-head driver matchup is all about the money line um what we've seen also introduced this year is a point spread or position spread differential um so how many laps that these drivers who are matched up against one another um you know how far ahead or behind will someone be so three and a half positions you have that point spread uh baked in there and then what i'm hoping to get out in 18 months possibly is an over under um of phys whether it's positioning finish or total points gain in a race so those three things right there will look exactly like a you know x team versus yt moneyline spread total for nascar we'll be able to have that as well so it'll be a very seamless transition when you're going from one vertical to another on a sportsbook sure well i uh i wish you the best of luck in this endeavor and uh thanks for experimenting with us today this has been joseph solowski the managing director of sports betting at nascar thank you very much thanks cameron you