The Las Vegas Grand Prix generated a historic windfall for sportsbooks, despite causing division among locals and facing legal issues. Caesars Sportsbooks set a new company record for total betting handle on any motorsports event, while rival entity BetMGM and the local Station Casinos, Westgate SuperBook, and Red Rock Resort similarly reported record handle for an F1 Race. “It was three times Daytona’s numbers,” Craig Mucklow, Caesars vice president of trading, told the Las Vegas Review Journal, referencing the high-profile NASCAR event. “It was well over seven figures.” BetMGM said it tripled the number of bets for any prior F1 event during the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The 10 p.m. local start time of the race — 1 a.m. on the East Coast — remains a subject of debate, with efforts already in motion to ensure an earlier start. That time was chosen in part to minimize disruption to local citizens who had endured months of headaches due to extended track construction. However, several drivers and team executives are also pushing for an earlier start to aid their own time-zone acclimation when traveling from Europe, as F1 continues to show growing pains in becoming a truly global sport. According to Fred Vasseur, Ferrari team principal, “In the past