This seriously impressive MGM stat ends Las Vegas GP debate

Sam Cooper 01 Dec 2023 8:30 PM

The race is estimated to have brought $1.2 billion to the city of Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas Grand Prix earned one Strip hotel company their highest-grossing weekend ever after the inaugural event of the race.

F1 returned to Vegas last month and although it did not go entirely to plan, the organisers and business owners are now feeling the positive effects of the race.

Casino owners MGM Resorts reported that it was their highest-grossing weekend in the company’s history.

Las Vegas cashes in on F1 interest

The company owns a number of casinos on the Strip including the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand and Park MGM and as such, were in line to make a handsome profit as F1 fans made their way to the city.

With a few weeks passed since the race, which was won by Max Verstappen, MGM have reported a positive uptick in their finances.

“It was the highest-grossing weekend for us, in hotel revenue, in the company’s history,” Chief financial officer Jonathan Halkyard said during the Leveraged Finance Conference.

“The second-highest was CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in 2019. So when you think about other events that have happened in Las Vegas over the years and the scale of our company, that’s quite something to have a record weekend on what was otherwise the slowest weekend of the year.”

The company’s CFO went on to explain that this level of profit was something they had expected which is why they were so keen to welcome F1 back to Nevada.

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“We had very high expectations for what this event would be in Las Vegas. We invested heavily into it. In particular, creating an experience for our casino customers and some retail customers in front of the Bellagio.

“This was an event that certainly had a lot of friction in the months leading up to it, a lot of construction in Las Vegas. Some of that will certainly be recurring but a lot of it will not be as dramatic in coming years.

“F1 and the city got the city ready for this event. F1 invested hundreds of millions of dollars in capital in their paddock facility. That, along with money that we invested to build this hospitality experience, we’ll reuse that year after year. I’m optimistic this is going to be a fantastic event in the years to come.”

Formula 1 have yet to release their official earnings and while Halkyard did not say MGM’s exact profits, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority suggests the race had an economic impact of $1.2 billion.