By Alan Baldwin

LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) - Formula One is looking to drive fan engagement by using its vast array of data to create more betting opportunities, the sport's director of commercial partnerships Jonny Haworth said on Thursday.

Recent figures from Nielsen Sports put Formula One's global fandom at 826.5 million, 12% more than in 2023, with a 39% increase in fans following in China over the last 12 months due to the post-COVID return of the country's race in Shanghai.

"We're sort of on a journey in the betting space at the moment," Haworth told the BlackBook Motorsport Forum in London on Thursday.

"I think we make up 0.4% of the overall global betting handle, which is pretty crazy for a sport of the size of Formula One and with a sport that has low latency data at a high volume which is what drives betting."

Formula One, whose cars have an array of sensors on them delivering billions of data points, last month announced San Diego-based ALT Sports Data as its official betting data supplier.

It said ALT would develop betting-focused real-time predictive analytics for Formula One as well as proprietary data and priced odds for the betting industry.

"We're working incredibly hard to try and figure out how we open up an engaging betting product that enables people not to just look at outcome betting but to use the data of the sport to be able to engage in various different in-play betting," said Haworth.

"We just believe that to be a huge engagement tool... I think there are many different ways to engage in the sport (other) than sitting and watching a two-hour broadcast and that is one way that drives a lot of engagement."

The 2025 season, with 24 races but no major rule changes before a new engine era in 2026, is expected to be one of the closest yet after four teams and seven different drivers won races last year.

"This season is a great season to really focus on our betting because we're going to see so much jeopardy on the track and who knows what's going to happen with the regulation changes next year," said Haworth.

Betting on Formula One has been tricky for the sport, with team orders being a feature and gambling barred in the Islamic world with four races in the Middle East.

There are also concerns about gambling and young fans, a key demographic for a sport that has seen rapid growth thanks in part to the popularity of the Netflix docu-series 'Drive to Survive'.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)

((alan.baldwin@thomsonreuters.com; +442075427933;))