Viva Las Vegas! NASCAR has gone all-in on sports gambling ahead of their playoff opener in Sin City. The sport plans to partner with multiple casinos to bring in-race betting to fans and interested wagerers. 

It's all expected to begin on Sunday at select sportsbooks throughout the country and will provide a limited selection of in-race bets including stage winners and outright winners. Currently, most onshore books only offer pre-race bets on the winner, head-to-head matchups, group props and futures. Now, bettors will have the opportunity to make a bet based on what is happening in the race. 

This new era of NASCAR betting is not limited to just Las Vegas. Starting Sunday, interested gamblers in New York (Resorts World Catskills), Iowa (Q Casino) and Mississippi (Pearl River) will be able to participate as part of the in-race betting plan. 

"In-race betting in particular can be 70-75% of all bets placed," Scott Warfield, NASCAR's managing director of gaming, told US Bets. "Something that gets fans to watch an extra 15, 30, 45 minutes is of real value. If someone has a prop bet on who will lead the most laps, that might postpone their mowing the lawn because they want to watch as many laps as possible. Every lap can be a [betting] opportunity."

Over time, NASCAR plans to expand its in-play options with a heavy focus on the 2020 season. Potential bets would include fastest laps times, number of lead changes and the number of passes throughout a race. NASCAR is labeling this weekend as phase 1 in the operation.

In May, NASCAR partnered with the organization Genius Sports, a company that stores data and provides it to books in order to create betting lines. The company will serve a key role in integrating live betting into NASCAR. 

Here's what Vegas native and NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch had to say about sports gambling in NASCAR in a 2018 interview with CBS Sports:

"I think it's good. You know I don't think there's a negative to it. I think you look at a lot of different jurisdictions across the country have kind of gotten into more of the casino-type atmospheres... Being from Las Vegas, that's the mecca for gambling in the country and it's pretty neat that you have this opportunity for fans to be able to bet on your sport. I think it'll put more eyeballs on the sport. I think it'll bring some interest to the sport. I've always kind of looked at horse racing as you know, you can go out there and bet on horse racing, but why can't we bet on racing, racing. I think it's just a difference of where the world is kind of going and what's kind of happening, so I think it's fine."