A bet is made when a bettor puts money behind an outcome of a sporting event and gets paid if that outcome occurs. Bets are based on statistics, results and outcomes of a game, as well as combining multiple outcomes into one bet known as a parlay. A sports book’s money lines change continuously based on betting action, meaning the line on your ticket may differ from the one listed when the bet is placed.
Official betting is when a wager is placed using data that is provided by a league. The concept of requiring official data first appeared in a draft lobbying document circulated by the NBA and MLB in February 2018, just months before SCOTUS struck down PASPA. The American Gaming Association supports private commercial agreements for official data and opposes legislative mandates.
In the US, states that have legalized sports betting have varied opinions on what constitutes official betting data. Some, such as Tennessee, have opted for a tiered approach that requires the use of official data for Tier 1 sports wagers. But other, such as Illinois, have opted to allow sportsbooks to grade Tier 2 bets without the use of official data.
The term “official” is used because the governing bodies of the sport have a specific interest in ensuring that bets are placed on genuine results and not false information. In baseball, for example, a player who bets against his team can get banned from the game, as was the case when Joseph Sullivan paid eight members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox to fix the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.
