SailGP Names Smarkets First Official Sports Betting Partner
The global sailing league SailGP has announced its first official partnership in the sports betting category with Smarkets. The deal marks a significant milestone for the league's commercial growth and is intended to expand fan engagement opportunities. Smarkets is a sports betting and trading platform.
The three-year agreement grants Smarkets exclusive integration rights in the UK, Ireland, and Sweden, making it the Official Sports Trading Partner for the Rolex SailGP Championship. The deal also includes a separate partnership with the 2025 Season Champions, the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team, for on-site and digital fan activations. This partnership is built on SailGP's massive data infrastructure, which captures 270,000 data points per second during races. Smarkets' betting exchange model thrives on such data-rich environments, as prices are driven by real-time information and competition between users, rather than by traditional bookmaker margins. Smarkets founder and CEO Jason Trost noted that this alignment allows for a "sharper, more transparent way to bet." The deal comes as SailGP's viewership is experiencing significant growth. The 2024-25 season drew a cumulative global audience of 215 million, a notable increase from 193 million the prior season. The league also generated over 1.65 billion social media views and saw its YouTube channel surpass 1 million subscribers, highlighting its expanding digital footprint. Smarkets differentiates itself from traditional sportsbooks by operating as a peer-to-peer betting exchange, generating revenue via a low commission (typically 1-2%) on net winnings. The company is technology-driven, utilizing a modern stack that includes Linux, Kafka, Postgres, Kubernetes, Python 3, C++17, and React. This isn't SailGP's first move into betting; the league began making odds and markets available through global operators in June 2025. However, the Smarkets agreement marks its first dedicated, official partnership within the sports trading category, signaling a deeper strategic push into fan engagement through betting.
