When it comes to placing a wager on sports events, there are plenty of rules that have to be followed. One of the most important is known as official betting.
The term official betting refers to any wager that is placed on a game that has been deemed “official” by the relevant sports governing body for that particular sport. This is done to ensure that bets are settled fairly and that all bettors are treated equally regardless of whether they are backing the winning team or a loser.
For a baseball game to be considered an official game for betting purposes it must go at least 8.5 innings or 7 if the home team is ahead, unless settlement has already been determined from an officially shortened game. If a full or half inning is canceled due to weather then bets on that market will be void.
Player markets or other statistically dependent markets are settled when the underlying statistics have been verified and certified by the applicable sports league. In the event that a market is unable to be settled using official data, a permit holder may substitute with data from another source as long as it is not inconsistent with the original data and is certified by the applicable sports league as being accurate.
Prop bets are a staple of baseball betting and can offer up big payouts on relatively small investments. Prop bets typically involve predicting the outcome of specific aspects of a game. For example, a “head-to-head” player prop pits a player against his/her own team’s starting pitcher, while a “pitch count” market offers odds on how many pitches a certain batter will receive during a game.