The concept of official betting is front and center in the ongoing conversation around US sports betting, as the leagues seek to reclaim a role as primary stakeholders in the new industry and profit from legal US wagering. This effort has supplanted the leagues’ attempt to collect an integrity fee as their preferred means of monetizing sports data.

Sportsbooks often partner with sports leagues for a number of reasons, from the granting of licensed use of official data to name-brand recognition in sportsbook advertising. In return, the leagues get additional revenue from licensing fees charged to operators for this data.

In a move that may be a sign of things to come, MGM and DraftKings team up with the NBA to lobby in DC in an effort to secure data mandates. The proposal calls for all operators to have access to the official NBA feed, allowing for in-game wagering to be graded using this data.

Currently, Illinois is the only state that includes official data in its sports betting law, and the mandate only applies to Tier 2 bets (sports wagers that do not involve a final score or outcome). Tier 1 sports wagers can already be graded using unofficial data, which was sufficient to grade all in-play wagers made in Tennessee until the NBA shut off this flow of official data.

Seeking, offering, or accepting a bribe to fix a game, match, or event is illegal in all US states. One of the most infamous instances involved professional gambler Joseph Sullivan, who paid eight members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox – Oscar Felsch, Arnold Gandil, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Fred McMullin, Charles Risberg, George Weaver, and Claude Williams – around 10,000 dollars each to lose the World Series for him and other gamblers.