Odds & Margins
Formula 1, how much the bookmaker keeps: the Singapore Grand Prix measured
On the winner of the Singapore Grand Prix the margin is 21.0%, more than three times the Serie A one. And almost all of it sits on the top eight drivers, not on the outsiders.
Published 10 October 2026
On the «race winner» market of the Singapore Grand Prix, Sunday 11 October at 14:00 Italian time, Betsson keeps 21.0%. On the full-time result of this weekend's ten Serie A matches the same operator keeps, at the median, 6.43%. Same bookmaker, same weekend: in Formula 1 betting costs more than three times as much.
No predictions and no odds in the text: here we measure the price of the market, not who will win.
The measurement
| Market | Outcomes | Sum of implied probabilities | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Race winner | 22 | 121.0% | 21.0% |
| Serie A, 1X2 full-time result (median, 10 matches) | 3 | 106.4% | 6.43% |
Betsson odds read on 10 October 2026 at 17:03, Italian time, after qualifying; the Serie A row is the reading of 9 October at 14:48 on the same operator. The podium market, which Betsson had closed during qualifying, had not reopened by then: that is why it is not here.
The margin is not where you would expect it
With twenty-two outcomes it is natural to think the bookmaker pays itself on the long shots at the bottom of the list, where a wrong price goes unnoticed. In this reading the opposite happens. The top eight on the list add up to 119.3 points of implied probability on their own; the other fourteen, all together, add 1.7. The 21.0% is built almost entirely on the names people actually bet on.
Why there is no comparison here
In football we compare several operators on the same match. In Formula 1, for now, we cannot: of the feeds we read, only Betsson prices motorsport. The number above says what this market costs at this operator, not what Formula 1 costs in general; a second bookmaker could sit below or above it, and until we read one we will not write it.
And a single reading stays a single reading: prices keep moving until the start. To know whether 21.0% is typical of Formula 1 the measurement has to be repeated over the next Grands Prix, in Austin on 25 October and in Mexico City on 1 November.
How we calculated it
For each driver we turn the odds into an implied probability (1 divided by the odds) and add up the twenty-two values. In the winner market only one outcome is paid, so everything above 100% is margin.
The margin calculation in full, on football: What the bookmaker's margin is, and how to measure it on a 1X2
How much the margin changes between football competitions: How much the margin changes between leagues