Official Betting
Official betting refers to sports bets that are made through a legal, licensed online or in-person sportsbook. These bets are a great way to win money while still supporting your favorite team or league.
A key aspect of this market is that sportsbooks must partner with a sports team in order to be able to offer wagers on their games. These partnerships give sportsbooks access to official team data and logos. In addition, they can also use media company data and odds information to help readers make informed bets.
Partnerships with NCAA member institutions are growing in popularity due to their ability to expand the sportsbook brand and increase revenue. These deals typically involve a license fee paid to the league for the use of their official data and branding in sportsbooks’ advertising.
Leagues have long opposed gambling and sought to limit the flow of US sports betting data, but that has changed in recent years as leagues look for ways to monetize their own data while also getting their cut of the sports betting jackpot. In order to do that, they have pushed for official league data mandates as the primary means of gaining control over the sports betting market.
This approach, however, isn’t perfect and has caused some issues for the industry as a whole. Some states have opted to only require official data for Tier 2 bets while others have gone the full distance and required sportsbooks to use official data for all wagers.