SailGP launches sports betting with DraftKings and Bet365

Fans watching the New York races for international sailing league SailGP this weekend will have another reason to root for their favorite team.

SailGP is working with gaming companies DraftKings in the United States and Bet365 internationally to let fans place bets on races, starting at the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix on June 7 and 8.

"It's a sport that's naturally built for sports betting and gaming onsite in person at the events," said SailGP chief revenue officer Ben Johnson. "It's communal; it's high speed; there are lots of different winners, event-to-event."

The move is part of a broader strategy to increase engagement and attract new fans to the sailing league, which was co-founded by tech billionaire Larry Ellison and champion yachtsman Russell Coutts in 2018.

The league pits 12 co-ed international teams racing identical 50-foot Catamarans against each other, with boats traveling at speeds that can exceed 60 mph. The races take place alongside the shoreline, where there are pop-up stadiums so fans and cameras can get a close look at the action.

The New York Grand Prix this weekend is nearly the halfway point for the fifth SailGP Championship season. The tight competition and novelty of the race outcomes positions the sport well for gaming, Johnson said.

"It is really reflective of how good the teams are currently and how much competition there is on a race-to-race basis, which makes it really fun for fans from a betting and gaming perspective," he said. "You can have an odds favorite, but at the end of the day, it really depends which team is sailing most competitively that weekend in that venue."

SailGP is already generating revenue through ticket sales, sponsorship and media rights.

The 2025 ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix in January drew a record 25,000 ticketed fans to the event, according to the league. In February, the 2025 KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix attracted SailGP's largest-ever dedicated global TV audience, reaching 21.1 million viewers, according to YouGov.

In October 2023, 1.78 million U.S. viewers watched the Spain Sail Grand Prix on CBS, the largest linear TV audience in the U.S. for sailing race in 30 years, including the Olympics and the America's Cup, according to Nielsen.

The event was slotted after a NFL game, and SailGP is poised to capitalize once again on those viewers this season, Johnson said.

"Our two biggest broadcast windows are coming up in in the third quarter," said Johnson. "They'll be again after NFL games, which we think is the most fun opportunity to highlight SailGP to a national audience at scale and that's where we're seeing the records set."

Across digital platforms, SailGP is drawing younger and more diverse fans than have been historically associated with yacht racing. Over the past year, it has notched up 1.4 billion video views across all social media channels and tripled its YouTube subscriber base, with nearly half of its subscribers (49%) between the ages of 18 to 34. By comparison, about a quarter of YouTube subscribers to the Americas Cup and the Ocean Race sailing league channels are in that cohort.

With gaming, SailGP is betting it can convert casual viewers into invested spectators and amp up the excitement. During live races, the league says it captures 270,000 data points per second, which are processed, along with historical performance data, to supply real-time odds to bookmakers.

This weekend, fans have the option to bet on the winner of each race, which teams will make it to the event finals, the winner of the event final and the overall season champion. A key aspect of the onsite activations will be teaching the racing rules of sailing, Johnson said. 

"The rules piece is a huge benefit for us because it gives people a really vested interest, not just who's in first and second, but why." said Johnson.

With growing viewership, sponsorship dollars are flowing. In November, SailGP signed Rolex as its first title partner of the global sailing competition. Many of the individual teams have now attracted major sponsors including brands such as Red Bull, Emirates, Mubadala, Tommy Hilfiger, Rockwool and Deutsche Bank.

The league is also selling off teams to investors at increasingly rich valuations.

In November 2023, an investor group led by Marc Lasry's Avenue Sports Fund completed its acquisition of the U.S. team for $35 million, a significant jump from the previous $5 million to $10 million range for team acquisitions.

And on Tuesday, SailGP announced that the Red Bull Italy SailGP Team had been acquired by a consortium of investors led by Muse Capital founding partner Assia Grazioli-Venier and luxury brand entrepreneur Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, with sailing legend Jimmy Spithill as CEO and co-owner. Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway also took a stake in the team. Teams are now being acquired for in excess of $50 million, the league told CNBC.

With the Italy sale, 10 of 12 teams are now independently owned, and future teams will be independently owned and financed.

"It's a really interesting consortium right now of private equity, family offices, athletes, actors, actresses, that we think really help with that strategic lens of how do we go and grow this sport and bring it to as many fans around the world in the largest way possible," Johnson said.