Top NASCAR Betting Sites

Betting Markets

NASCAR races feel as much like festivals as they feel like sporting events. But it doesn’t matter if you can’t be there to soak up the electric atmosphere in-person – online betting can throw you right into the thick of the action. Here are some of the most popular ways to wager on this American institution.

Race/championship Winner

Every NASCAR fan will have an opinion on who’ll speed their way to supremacy in a given race. As well as putting your money on who the winner of an individual race will be, you can also go bigger and predict who’ll win an overall championship, such as the NASCAR Cup Series.

Winning Car Number

The NASCAR car numbers can take on a totemic significance (just consider how prestigious the number 88 has become to NASCAR fans). With this betting market, you can try predicting whether the winner will be driving an even or odd-numbered car.

Winning Team

Which team will see one of their drivers win the race? Chip Ganassi Racing, perhaps? Maybe Joe Gibbs? There are plenty of possibilities to choose from.

Winning Manufacturer

Ford? Toyota? Chevrolet? Petrolheads love to guess which manufacturer’s set of wheels will thunder across the finish line first.

Top Place Finishes

It’s not just about who’ll win a race. You can also bet on where drivers will finish – whether that’s the Top 3, Top 5, or Top 10. The odds will be less lucrative than picking the outright winner, but you’ll have a bigger chance of winning the bet.

Head-to-head Matchups

This is a fascinating market for serious NASCAR fans, as it picks out two drivers and lets you wager on which will do better than the other. It’s ideal for those who follow NASCAR closely and know a thing or two about how the drivers have been performing lately.

In-play Betting

For many punters today, in-play betting –also called live betting– is the most exciting way to have a wager. Instead of having to place all your bets before the NASCAR race, you can carry on wagering even as the cars zoom around the track. It means every crash, bang and skin takes on added, exhilarating significance, triggering fluctuations in the odds on offer.

If, say, a particular driver is hotly tipped to win the race, then seems to be faltering and lagging, the odds on them may lengthen. If you bet on them to succeed at these, new odds, and they do actually win, you’ll get a better return than if you’d bet on the shorter odds they would have had as the pre-race favourite.

Cash Out

Many of Canada’s top betting sites let you cash out on a bet even before the outcome has occurred. Say you’ve bet on a certain driver to win the Brickyard 400, and they start to seriously lag behind for whatever reason. Instead of resigning yourself to an outright loss, you can opt to cash out. This lets you collect an amount of money calculated according to the live odds and your original stake. While it won’t be as much as a win, it’s nice to know you’re able to cut your losses whenever you want.

Accumulators

A lot of punters these days love accumulator, or parlay, bets, and we can see why. With accumulators, you bundle together a bunch of individual wagers on the same bet slip. If they all come good, the odds will be multiplied to work out your return. That equates to a far bigger profit than if you’d simply taken out separate bets in the traditional way.

There’s a catch, though. If one selection loses, the whole wager loses. But don’t worry, the best Canadian bookies have accumulator insurance on offer. With this, if your parlay misses out by one selection, you’ll get your original wager back in free bet credits.

Boost Your Bankroll With a Bonus

Who doesn’t love a good bonus? If you claim a welcome bonus, for example, you can get to grips with NASCAR betting without necessarily risking your own money to start off with. Here are some popular types of welcome bonuses to look out for.

Matched deposit bonuses

Offering a matched percentage of your first deposit up to a maximum limit, these are a familiar sight when you browse lists of Canada bookmakers. For example, if there’s a “100% up to $150” offer, and you open your account with a deposit of $150, you’ll be given an extra $150 to bet with. Do check what the wagering and minimum odds requirements are, though.

Free bets

Few bettors would say no to a free bet, and many bookmakers in Canada will offer them up as a welcome bonus, provided you make a qualifying first bet. For example, it might be the case that placing a S10 wager on an outcome with qualifying odds will earn you another $10 in free bet credits.

Grab Some Great Value on NASCAR Events

The best betting sites in Canada continue to offer rewards to customers in the form of on-going promotions. Here are a few popular types.

Money-back Offers

Losing a bet doesn’t always mean losing your wager. With a money-back promotion, the money you put down is returned to your account in the form of free bet credits. There will be a maximum limit, so if it was a particularly big wager you’ll only get a proportion returned.

Enhanced Odds

Betting on the most likely outcome doesn’t usually reward you with a lucrative payout – unless enhanced odds are in place. In which case, the bookmaker has artificially skewed the odds so that betting on favourites suddenly becomes a more tantalizing prospect.

The best betting sites in Canada will make life easy for you by supporting all the main banking methods. These can include:

• Visa and Mastercard credit cards and debit cards
• Interac
• InstaDebit
• Neteller
• Skrill
• Paysafecard
• ecoPayz
• Wire transfer

Place Your Bets on the Go

Web Apps

This is the most widespread option, as virtually every single betting site is fully optimized for use on your mobile device’s web browser. You just log on as normal and place your bets, in much the same way as you would on a computer. The main plus point here is you don’t need to download any software – ideal if storage space on your device is tight.

Native Apps

If your preferred betting site has a native app, it’s well worth downloading it. This kind of app sits on your phone and can be accessed with a tap, removing the need to use the browser. Mobile apps tend to be faster and easier to use than web apps, and also flag up the latest betting promotions using push notifications.

Betting Tips for NASCAR

NASCAR is huge in the United States, but not as popular in Canada. So, if you’re not already familiar with how it all works, it’s important to watch some races beforehand –perhaps on YouTube– to get a feel for how it all works. Then you can start to research drivers and their recent form. You should also look at how the team dynamics have been lately – even a star driver can be hampered if he’s fallen out with teammates, or if the team just hasn’t been gelling for whatever reason.

Check out their form on certain track types as well. Sure, a driver may be on a winning streak, but their next race might be at a track which doesn’t bring out their particular strengths. Some drivers perform better on short tracks, for example, while others excel on super speedways. Feasting on all the available stats to see who has an affinity with which track can really help you make wiser bets on all kinds of markets.

Major NASCAR events

The NASCAR Cup Series is the highest and most famous level in the sport, with the season kicking off in February and running throughout much of the year. Its major races include:

• Daytona 500 (February, Daytona International Speedway)
• GEICO 500 (April or May, Talladega Superspeedway)
• Coca-Cola 600 (May, Charlotte Motor Speedway)
• Southern 500 (September, Darlington Raceway)

NASCAR’s “minor league” is the Xfinity Series, which includes races such as:

• Cheddar’s 300 (April, Bristol Motor Speedway)
• Drydene 200 (May, Dover International Speedway)

Ready to bet on NASCAR?

Has reading about NASCAR made you eager to put pedal to the metal and place bets on this iconic American sport? Check out our list of Canada’s top betting sites, sign up to whatever catches your eye, and you’ll be ready to bet today!