Official League Data Mandates

Following the failure to secure direct "integrity fees" post-PASPA, major US sports leagues (NBA, MLB, NFL) successfully lobbied state legislatures (e.g., TN, IL, MI) to mandate the use of **Official League Data** for settling in-play (Tier 2) wagers. These mandates circumvented the *Motorola v. NBA* precedent—which established sports scores as public facts—by creating statutory requirements for data usage under the guise of consumer protection. This structure entrenched a duopoly of data distributors, **Genius Sports** and **Sportradar**, who secured exclusive league rights and charged operators premium fees. The mandates transformed data from a commodity into a high-cost intellectual property asset, making the leagues direct beneficiaries of betting revenue through commercial data contracts.