Official betting is wagering on results certified by a sportsbook using official data provided by a league or governing body. This includes match result wagers, first goalscorer markets, outright league and tournament winner bets and more. If a match is postponed or abandoned before the end of 90 minutes, any bets on that outcome will be void unless they have been settled beforehand.
The term ‘official betting’ has been a hot topic of debate over the past few years, as it’s become increasingly apparent that major US sports leagues are determined to shape legal sports gambling policy through the prism of official data mandates. These battles have supplanted the leagues’ previous opposition to gambling, as they now look to profit from US sports betting by directly controlling the flow of real-time game information to operators.
A sportsbook that offers official betting will have a special tab or section of its website where the bets are placed. The betting rules for each sport can vary from state to state, but generally speaking, bets on events are placed on the result as certified by the governing body. The governing bodies will then provide the data to the sportsbook in real time. The data is then used to settle bets and determine odds. In some cases, this may include additional information beyond the final score (such as the number of fouls committed, team possession percentages or player statistics).
It is also common for a bookmaker to offer a market on the number of games won by each team in a particular season. This bet type is known as a totalizators and operates in much the same way that parimutuel bets do in horse racing. In a totalizators market, the odds of each possible outcome will be adjusted in real time to reflect the amount of money placed on the bet. The odds will then be paid out to bettors and the stakes returned to the bookmaker according to their return rate.
Currently, MLB and the NBA are pushing to have their tier 1 official data mandates added to sports betting laws in states that legalize. However, the American Gaming Association has offered its opposition to these data requirements and they have yet to be enacted.
Players can also sign ambassador roles with betting companies that see them promote the brand while limiting how many bets they can place during a game. The Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid, for example, has been the first NHL player to sign a pact with BetGM. However, these agreements are not without restrictions and players can face fines or even permanent bans if found to be violating league rules. The infamous Pete Rose case is a perfect illustration of this.