Formula 1

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Formula 1 is one of the most exciting sports on the planet. Forget about Nascar, no one wants to watch dozens of cars drive in a circle for a few hours (although we do kinda enjoy it) as the fans wait and pray for a crash. Formula 1 is a sport where the bests of the best drive in billion dollar cars around street circuits all over the world. This is the only sport where you will see an superrich sportsman driving a billion dollar car around the streets of Monte Carlo, whilst millions of people cheer him on (and secretly hope he crashes).

The beauty of F1 is not only the fact that there are races all over the world, from here in Canada with the Montreal Grand Prix, to the aforementioned Monte Carlo GP, the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Shanghai Grand Prix, but that this is a universal sport. Strangely enough, it is not the number 1 sport in any country, but it seems to be in the top 5 sports in all countries. This is no “you either love it or hate it” sport, and much like boxing it is a sport that everyone enjoys to some extent.

Thanks to websites like BetFair, which is available for all Canadians to join, F1 is also a fantastic sport to bet on. In this article we will look at the most popular betting markets, all of which are available on the BetFair betting exchange or the BetFair sports book.

Playing the Long Game

In the F1 season that ran before the current one, it was a toss up between Rosberg and Hamilton all of the way. You could have gotten a very good price for both of these at the beginning of the season and an even better price for all of the others (none of which really stood a chance). That changed following Hamilton’s win though and in the current season Hamilton has been a short price throughout, a price he has lived up to.

However, there is still value in betting on the outright markets, just not for the winners. The value here is in the “top 3” bets, because whilst the top two drivers are usually a short price and are usually easy to predict, the same can not be said for the rest. This means that the odds are very tempting and the excitement runs throughout the course of the season, as the way the points are dished out for each race means that your chosen driver should always have a chance to make it into the top three.

Classified Drivers

The “Classified Driver” markets allow you to bet on who will finish the race. As well as betting on whether or not certain drivers will crash or breakdown at some point (with odds of around 5/1 for the elite drivers, all the way down to Evens for those drivers who race for the low scoring teams) you can also bet on the Over/Under market. This market will be preset with an amount of drivers, depending on how many drivers will start the race, what the weather is going to be like and which track it is.

At the Monte Carlo Grand Prix, for instance, which can be very hard on the drivers, then the market might be Under/Over 15.5 Classified Drivers, assuming that the full roster of drivers began the race. Both the Over and Under options will return odds of 10/11, but you can increase the number of drivers to take more money on the Over bet, and you can decrease it to take more money on the Under bet.

One thing you need to bear in mind though, and one thing that many punters fail to understand when it comes to this market, is to “classify” a driver does not need to finish the race. This is a bizarre rule, but the fact is that all drivers who make it through 95% of the race will be classified. Of course, if they are leading the race and they crash on the final lap they will not win the race and they will not get any points at all, so why they would then be officially classified is anyone’s guess. That’s the way things are though and the issue is with the F1 and its officiators, not BetFair and other betting sites.

Best Formula 1 Betting Sites:

( www.SportsInteraction.com )

Other Bets

The markets mentioned above are some of the most popular and the ones that we would recommended. You can also bet on the winners of an individual race or qualifying session, but the winner does not offer enough to make this a viable option for us because unlike in many other racing sports, such as horse racing, in F1 the winner is often the favorite.

One bet that we do enjoy is what we like to call the triple whammy, but what is often listed as Pole/Win/Fastest Lap. Simply put, in this market you bet on one driver to get the pole, win the race and claim the fastest lap. These achievements often (but not always) go hand in hand, and you can use them to get much better value from the best drivers. As an example, if Hamilton is the odds-on favorite to get pole position, win the race and get the fastest lap, which he so often is these days, then the accumulation of these things is often enough to give you positive odds in the Pole/Win/Fastest Lap market.