About Official Betting

The sports wagering landscape is evolving quickly in states where it’s legal. The teams, leagues, casinos, racetracks and online operators are making their debuts or preparing to do so. It’s all part of a massive market shakeup that started when PASPA was overturned.

A lot of that change has come in the form of partnerships between sportsbooks and the leagues themselves, such as MGM’s deal with the NBA, FanDuel with the NHL, and many individual team-sportsbook pairings (e.g. the New York Jets and William Hill). But other changes are coming through regulation, which has opened the door for federal action.

Some of those moves are aimed at increasing integrity and security, such as the NFL’s new rules on player-team sports betting partnerships. But other regulatory moves are designed to monetize sports betting. For example, a 2023 bill to place local tribes in charge of Oklahoma sports betting passed the state House and will be put to voters during November’s general election.

In terms of monetization, the sports betting industry is also going through an interesting evolution regarding “official” versus “unofficial” data. That’s a complicated subject that Sports Handle has written and reported on extensively, but the gist is that sports leagues are pushing for sportsbooks to pay them for information about their games. They claim (dishonestly) that it’s needed to preserve game integrity, but it really comes down to a war of money and power.