Formula One (F1) has announced that a five-season agreement has been reached with 188BET which sees the operator named as the Official Asia Sponsor of the motorsport series.

The deal, which is effective immediately, runs until the culmination of the 2024 F1 Championship and will see the bookmaker featured exclusively throughout the Asian broadcast market.

Furthermore, the partnership will grant the 188BET brand access to appear on sophisticated virtual trackside advertising for races that are broadcast together with bespoke activation and integration across F1’s rapidly expanding digital and social platforms.

Exclusive ownership of the F1 Play predictor app for the Asia sports betting market will also be given to 188BET as a result of the partnership, along with having official F1 betting data supplied to it by Sportradar.

The announcement follows on from a record breaking 2019 for the sport which saw it post a 1.75% spectator increase at its Grand Prix’s when compared to 2018, as well as a 7.15% rise in Formula 1 Paddock Club ticket holders and a 1.85% rise in average race attendance.

Sean Bratches, Managing Director, Commercial Operations, F1 stated: “2019 has been another great year for Formula 1 and we are delighted to see that over 4 million fans joined us at our 21 races, beating the attendance figures for last year, including a record-breaking Italian Grand Prix weekend attendance with 200,000 spectators.

“Our mission is to unleash the greatest racing spectacle on the planet and give our fans an experience they will never forget. We are therefore delighted to see that, based on research carried out on the ground, those attending events are enjoying their experience over a race weekend and we are determined to ensure they continue to feel that way.”

As well as this, it was also revealed that 2019 saw three Grand Prix events attract attendances of over 300,000 spectators over the race weekend – Silverstone, Great Britain (351,000), Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico (345,694) and Albert Park Grand Prix, Australia (324,100).

Moreover, F1 also revealed that a total of eight, over a third of all its Grand Prix events, attracted crowds of over 200,000, including Singapore and USA (268,000 each), Belgium (251,864), Hungary (230,000) and Austria (203,000). Moreover, the 90th edition of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza registered its highest-ever weekend attendance with 200,000 spectators.