What You Need to Know About Official Betting
Official betting is a legal form of sports gambling in which you place wagers on the outcome of an officially-sanctioned sporting event. It can be an exciting way to bet on a sport you love, but it also has some important rules and limitations.
Getting Started
The first state to legalize sports betting in the US was Nevada, which launched online gambling in May 2018. Since then, several other states have followed its lead. Those include Illinois and Tennessee, which recently passed laws mandating the use of official league data for certain types of wagers.
Live In Game Betting
These bets involve the number of runs scored in a game and can be placed as soon as the first pitch is thrown. They’re usually based on the final score, but some can be made based on the result of extra innings.
Money Lines
The odds for money lines are generally set by the sportsbook. The favorite’s line will be higher than the underdog’s. When the underdog is favored, it will need to win by a certain margin to cover. If the favorite is -1.5, it will need to lose by one run or more to cover. When the favorite is plus-1.5, it will need to win by two or more runs to cover.
Money Lines are the most popular type of bet in US sportsbooks, but you can also place bets on totals and run lines. Those are wagers on the number of combined runs in a game or season. All runs scored in extra innings count toward those totals.
Player Prop Bets
MLB player prop bets are considered official only if the player makes an appearance. If a player doesn’t make an appearance, the bet is not valid and will likely result in a refund.
Players’ Unions
The NCAA and NFL are the only major professional sports associations that have banned biometric data from their members’ gambling accounts. That rule is designed to protect the integrity of sports games and athletes, not to increase a bookmaker’s profit.
Amid concerns for athlete privacy, many states have banned the use of biometric data in their sports betting regulations. This includes both state-run and private bookmakers.
As an alternative, many bookmakers are attempting to create their own data sources in the hopes of offering better bettor experiences. But while these new methods may provide a greater level of accuracy and speed, they can also be costly for sportsbooks.
Legislation in Tennessee prompted an industry group to call for a ban on sportsbooks using unofficial data for live in-game betting. Ultimately, that legislation was dropped.
In-Play wagers are a newer form of in-game betting that allows a sportsbook to offer the chance to bet on specific events occurring in a sporting event. These are known as “Tier 2” bets and require the purchase of official data from a governing body.
As of February 2019, three states have legalized in-play betting — Mississippi, Nevada, and West Virginia. Lawmakers in these states have opted to only mandate the use of official data for Tier 2 bets, though they can also choose to allow other data sources for other types of wagers. Operators may choose to use unofficial data for some live in-game wagers if they can show it is available at a competitive price. This approach is a far cry from the league-imposed lockdown of betting data that some lobbyists sought and which has been rejected by many state regulators.