Sports betting is a massive business and there are many different types of wagers you can place. Some of the most common wagers are on the total number of points scored or whether a team will win a game, but it’s also possible to bet on specific player props and individual player performance.

Official Betting

The battle over official betting data has emerged as one of the primary fronts in state and federal efforts to shape US sports betting policy. After years of opposing gambling, leagues now seek a role as primary stakeholders in legal US sports betting and a mechanism for monetizing the data they own. Their preferred vehicle is a levy on all US bets called an integrity fee, which they hope will allow them to get their share of the growing sports betting market.

Ultimately, the market will decide how much official data is worth. At present, operators and bettors are largely uninterested in paying for leagues’ data. Even the NFL’s current distribution arrangement with Sportradar and Genius Sports, a partnership that has grown alongside interest in legal US sports betting, comes at an unsustainable commercial cost.

Illinois’ law includes an official data mandate but omits the integrity fee that leagues want to charge on all US bets. Neither the NBA nor the PGA Tour have signed up to a handle-based data deal but both are seeking to negotiate with distributors that might be interested in such a deal.