LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - Betway will become Formula One's first official betting operator in a multi-year deal announced by the sport on Thursday ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
The Malta-headquartered online betting brand is part of Super Group, a holding company that also includes online casino Spin.
Liberty Media-owned Formula One said the deal would span Europe, the Middle East and Africa region as well as Canada and Mexico and represented the first of its kind in the F1 betting market.
"Sports betting is now a natural extension of how many modern fans engage with live events," Formula One's director of commercial partnerships Jonny Haworth said in a statement.
"As a series with vast and complex data sets, our innovative partnership with Betway allows our adult fans to take a step closer to the strategy and action that makes it so thrilling."
Formula One said the partnership will build on ALT Sports Data's expertise as the official betting data supplier, providing real-time predictive analytics from Formula One's data banks as well as creating proprietary data and priced odds.
Fans will be able to place in-play bets on driver and team strategy including safety car occurrences and pitstops.
The 24-race season starts in Melbourne this weekend, with the starting grid expanded to 11 teams following the arrival of Cadillac and with major changes to the engine and chassis regulations.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ed Osmond)
