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NASCAR officials were not the only one's hoping Danica Patrick would finish strong at Saturday's Drive4COPD Nationwide race in Daytona. Online oddsmakers were hopeful that Patrick could drive increased betting interest to the sport.
For years, NASCAR betting as been seen as a "weak" supplement to the other major sports such as NFL and College Basketball. The once largest online sports betting enterprise, BetOnSports.com, would not even permit wagering on NASCAR events without an accompanying second sport wager.
"For whatever the reason, NASCAR betting has never really caught on," states Don Shapiro of Gambling911.com.
Though the Daytona 500, which kicks the new NASCAR season off today, is widely viewed as the "Super Bowl of Racing", it has failed to generate anything close to the amount of betting action on the NFL Championship game.
"Interest in betting circles is paltry at best," says Shapiro, alluding to the few hundred Daytona 500 betting-related searches generated thus far.
The terms "Odds to Win Daytona 500 2010" and "Daytona 500 Odds" both rank rather high on Google's first page linking back to Gambling911.com, but the click thrus have been nominal.
Enter NASCAR's newest sweetheart, Danica Patrick, who announced she would now be racing part time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports and her sponsor GoDaddy.com.
Patrick got caught up in a 12 car accident that left her car mangled on Saturday. Danica remained optimistic, saying: "It's important to have realistic expectations. There's going to be spikes in performance, I don't doubt that. But there's also going to be tough days. And today, I would say, was more of a tough day."
Oddsmakers were hopeful Patrick could bring the same betting enthusiasm to her sport that we have witnessed with golf, thanks to Tiger Woods.
"People will be looking to bet exclusively on whether Patrick will win or not and what place range she finishes," Shapiro noted.
Woods bet account for more than half the money wagered on golf in the US.
Tyrone Black, Gambling911.com
