Feeds, latency and settlement
A live price is only as good as the feed behind it. This page explains the two feeds that matter, why one is faster and one is authoritative, and how the split between pricing and settlement produces the surprises bettors notice.
Stage 01Two feeds: the fast one and the authoritative one
Live betting rests on two kinds of data. A scout feed is collected by people physically at the event, sometimes called courtsiders when the collection is unofficial, and it is often the fastest signal available. An official feed is the one the sport or its appointed data rights holder provides, often from the venue’s timing or scoring system, and it is authoritative: it is what the sport itself treats as the record. Operators tend to price on the fastest feed they can licence, because speed is accuracy on a live market, and to settle on the official one, because a result must be defensible. The two are not competitors so much as different tools for different jobs.
| Scout feed | Official feed | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Fast — collected in the moment | Slower — it is the definitive record |
| Source | People at the venue | The sport or its data rights holder |
| Used for | The live price while the market is open | The result and the settlement |
| Risk | A human reading, so occasionally amended | Amendments follow the sport’s process |
Stage 02Latency, and the gap the delay window guards
Latency is the delay between an event happening and the price reacting to it. The difference in latency between the fastest feed and the wider market is the gap a delay window exists to guard: if a price could be locked before the market re-priced, anyone with the faster view would take a certain edge. Latency is also why two operators can show slightly different prices for the same market at the same moment — they are pricing the same event through feeds that update at different speeds. The delay window on your bet is the point at which the operator absorbs that latency on its side rather than letting the bettor exploit it.
Stage 03Data rights: why the official feed is licensed
Sports commonly sell the rights to their live data, which means an official feed is a licensed product with a rights holder. That licensing is what makes the official feed authoritative and what makes unofficial collection — courtsiding — a breach of the venue’s terms and, in some jurisdictions, an offence. For the bettor, data rights explains why a market can be suspended when the official data is unavailable or being corrected, and why the settlement source named in the terms is usually the official feed rather than the fast scout feed that priced the market while it was open.
Courtsiding and pitchside
Why unofficial fast data collection is banned, what the terms of entry say, and how it relates to the delay.
Stage 04Pricing on one feed, settling on another
The most common confusion this desk hears is a live price that disagreed with a final result. It is usually not an error but the designed split: the price was built on the fast feed while the market was open, and the settlement came from the official source named in the terms. When the two disagree — a corrected statistic, a revised scorer, a point later awarded — the operator applies its settlement rule, which typically follows the official feed or the governing body. That is why the terms nominate a settlement source: without one, every review correction would be a dispute.
Where a market goes when the feeds disagree
Operator’s terms → settlement source (usually official feed or governing body) → and, if a review rule applies, void rather than pay at the disputed price.
Back to the acceptance trace
A bet passes through the delay window, acceptance and settlement — the overview ties the stages together.
Affiliate disclosure and risk warning
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