Official betting is a wager that relies on official data to determine the outcome of a sports event. There are three different types of official betting: Tier 1 (score-based), Tier 2 (live betting), and Tier 3 (outcome-based).

The emergence of official league data as a central topic in the US sports betting conversation has come as a result of years of lobbying by the leagues and the gambling industry. As a result, the battle over which data must be used has become an important element of US state and federal sports betting policy.

Tier 1 Bets

The most popular tier of official league data is the “Tier 1” wager, which is determined solely by the final score or outcome of the sports event. This type of wager is placed before the event begins and cannot be reversed or altered after the game has begun.

Several states have mandated the use of official league data in their sports betting laws, including Nevada and Tennessee. However, other US states have opted not to include this requirement in their laws.

Tier 2 Betting

While the legality of live betting has been debated in several US states, Tennessee and Illinois are the only two that have included an official data mandate in their laws. These laws require that wagers be placed on “live games” that utilize official league data, allowing them to offer betting lines with a wider variety of outcomes and better odds than would be possible without this information.