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Dover Downs officials see NASCAR fans as a potentially lucrative class of clientele for the new sports book.
A federal appeals court limited the sports book in Delaware to parlay betting on at least three National Football League games though.
But ask any online sportsbook operator and they're likely to tell Delaware officials they aren't missing anything when it comes to not being able to offer NASCAR betting. The sport is yet to seriously catch on with the sports betting public, not even with the major races like the Indianapolis 500 or the Daytona 500.
"You'll get a few people placing future bets on those two events but they hardly make a dent in the online sportsbooks," explains Payton O'Brien of Gambling911.com. "We monitor traffic related to NASCAR betting. Nobody seems interested despite the sport's huge following."
Delaware officials have not done their homework.
"We're a small state with a small population and we need all the help we can get," Dover Motorsports president Denis McGlynn said Saturday. "I think the sports betting could have had the ability to draw new people into NASCAR just to give them some other reason to watch."
State officials are appealing the ruling by the federal appeals court and are still hoping to offer more popular single-game bets, and wagering on a variety of sports.
"I have hopes. Not sure they're realistic," McGlynn said.
But the likelihood of this happening is not very good. Delaware will have to show that the judges who rendered their decision did so without any concept of the law surrounding this matter.
The one positive is that NASCAR, unlike the NFL and a number of other professional sports leagues, do not appear to be against betting on the sport.
"To the extent that our fans would like it and enjoy it, I think it's a good thing," NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said.
The NFL is among the leagues that filed an action against the state of Delaware to try and quash legalized sports betting.
Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
