Las Vegas Continues To Add To Its Sports Tourism Portfolio

The city of Las Vegas continues to cement its reputation as the best sports travel destination in the world with yet another high-profile event.

In what is being a called a ‘seminal moment,’ Las Vegas will transform part of the famous Las Vegas Strip next year into a night-time racing course to host a Formula One championship auto race.

It will become just the third U.S. city to host a Formula One event, along with Austin and Miami. The race will receive primetime coverage on a Saturday night in November of 2023, according to ESPN. The nearly four-mile layout will race past some of the most iconic parts of Las Vegas, including Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino and the Bellagio Fountains.

While most American race fans center their attention on NASCAR – and Vegas already hosts one of those events as well – U.S. interest in open wheel racing, or Formula One, has skyrocketed due to the popular Netflix streaming series “Drive to Survive.”

“This is an incredible moment for Formula One that demonstrates the huge appeal and growth of our sport with a third race in the US,” F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said in a statement. “Las Vegas is a destination known around the world for its excitement, hospitality, thrills, and of course, the famous Strip. There is no better place for Formula 1 to race than in the global entertainment capital of the world and we cannot wait to be here next year.”

Las Vegas, long known as America’s Playground, has quickly become America’s Sports Playground. The city was always the capital of huge world championship boxing matches, and was a destination gathering for bettors looking to place legal wagers on the NCAA Basketball Tournament. But once it got past the stigma and fear of legalized professional gambling and drew a popular expansion National Hockey League franchise – the Golden Knights – in 2017, all bets were off, pardon the pun.

Not only did Las Vegas lure the Oakland Raiders to relocate to the city three years later, but they are trying for a Major League Baseball franchise as well as a National Basketball Association team.

Getting a yearly Formula One race appeals to a high-end, European crowd who would love any reason at all to hit Las Vegas on a race weekend.