This article explains how our Aggregated Odds service is handled at a data level.

For a basic introduction of what Aggregated Odds are and what they contain, please see our PDF guide to Aggregated Odds here.

For a primer on what our Aggregated Odds feeds consist of and how to integrate them, please see the relevant article here.

Once you've read those, this article will give you all the information on what goes into creating the data that we deliver to you.

Pre-Game Lines and In-Play Lines

For our Pre-Game Lines (PGL) and In-Play Lines (IPL): as soon as the relevant sportsbooks (see PDF for details here) publish the odds, we ingest them to our database, format them for delivery, and push them out via their dedicated endpoints.

Here is the individual process for each line type and each sport.

Pre-Game Lines - Opening, Changing, Closing

NFL

NFL Pre-Game Line Opening

During the NFL season, markets for the upcoming week of games start coming in after the previous week's Monday Night Football game, with the Thursday game generally coming first.

Due to the news cycle, practice reports etc., certain markets can continue to come in as late as the weekend for the Monday Night game.

NFL Pre-Game Line Changes

Odds update regularly due to changes in player availability, market liquidity etc. We track each change as it occurs with a timestamp, which can be viewed in the relevant Line Changes endpoint.

However, regardless of when they are made available by the sportsbooks, we ingest them and publish them immediately and update them continuously.

NFL Pre-Game Line Closure

Pre-Game lines are closed for betting in the minutes before the game begins. In-Play markets take over from this point.

The markets themselves are settled in the aftermath of the event as part of our Odds Settlement feeds. Generally this occurs within 10 minutes of the game ending and is denoted by our IsClosed flag being set to True.

MLB

MLB Pre-Game Line Opening

Typically odds are made available early on game day, or occasionally the night before. If a team has two days between games, they may be available earlier.

There are certain exceptions, such as double-headers (which may be available later than normal to accommodate line changes for split lineups.)

MLB Pre-Game Line Changes

Odds update regularly due to changes in player availability, market liquidity etc. We track each change as it occurs with a timestamp, which can be viewed in the relevant Line Changes endpoint.

However, regardless of when they are made available by the sportsbooks, we ingest them and publish them immediately and update them continuously.

MLB Pre-Game Line Closure

Pre-Game lines are closed for betting in the minutes before the game begins. In-Play markets take over from this point.

NBA

NBA Pre-Game Line Opening

Typically odds are made available early on game day, or occasionally the night before. If a team has two days between games, they may be available earlier.

NBA Pre-Game Line Changes

Odds update regularly due to changes in player availability, market liquidity etc. We track each change as it occurs with a timestamp, which can be viewed in the relevant Line Changes endpoint.

However, regardless of when they are made available by the sportsbooks, we ingest them and publish them immediately and update them continuously.

NBA Pre-Game Line Closure

Pre-Game lines are closed for betting in the minutes before the game begins. In-Play markets take over from this point.

NHL

NHL Pre-Game Line Opening

Typically odds are made available the day before the game. If a team has two days between games, they may be available earlier, but may adjust to reflect the outcome of morning skate.

NHL Pre-Game Line Changes

Odds update regularly due to changes in player availability, market liquidity etc. We track each change as it occurs with a timestamp, which can be viewed in the relevant Line Changes endpoint.

However, regardless of when they are made available by the sportsbooks, we ingest them and publish them immediately and update them continuously.

NHL Pre-Game Line Closure

Pre-Game lines are closed for betting in the minutes before the game begins. In-Play markets take over from this point.

CFB

CFB Pre-Game Line Opening

Odds are generally published around five days out from the game in question. For the regular Saturday games, odds will start filtering in late on Sunday and throughout the day on Monday.

CFB Pre-Game Line Changes

Odds update regularly due to changes in player availability, market liquidity etc. We track each change as it occurs with a timestamp, which can be viewed in the relevant Line Changes endpoint.

However, regardless of when they are made available by the sportsbooks, we ingest them and publish them immediately and update them continuously.

CFB Pre-Game Line Closure

Pre-Game lines are closed for betting in the minutes before the game begins. In-Play markets take over from this point.

CBB

CBB Pre-Game Line Opening

Typically odds are made available early on game day, or occasionally the night before. If a team has two days between games, they may be available earlier.

CBB Pre-Game Line Changes

Odds update regularly due to changes in player availability, market liquidity etc. We track each change as it occurs with a timestamp, which can be viewed in the relevant Line Changes endpoint.

However, regardless of when they are made available by the sportsbooks, we ingest them and publish them immediately and update them continuously.

CBB Pre-Game Line Closure

Pre-Game lines are closed for betting in the minutes before the game begins. In-Play markets take over from this point.

Golf

Golf Pre-Game Line Opening

For any given tournament, basic odds will generally start appearing seven days before the start of the tournament. Once the field of players is confirmed, more markets will appear in the days leading up to the first tee time.

Golf Pre-Game Line Changes

Odds update regularly due to changes in the field, market liquidity etc. We track each change as it occurs with a timestamp, which can be viewed in the relevant Line Changes endpoint.

However, regardless of when they are made available by the sportsbooks, we ingest them and publish them immediately and update them continuously.

Golf Pre-Game Line Closure

Pre-Game lines are closed for betting in the minutes before the given tournament begins, or round in the case of round-by-round markets. In-Play markets take over from this point.

The markets themselves are settled in the aftermath of the event as part of our Odds Settlement feeds. Generally this occurs within 10 minutes of the tournament or round ending and is denoted by our IsClosed flag being set to True.

NASCAR

NASCAR Pre-Game Line Opening

Basic odds start appearing generally on the Sunday before the following Saturday's race. More detailed markets can appear up to and including on race day itself.

NASCAR Pre-Game Line Changes

Odds update regularly due to changes in driver availability, market liquidity etc. We track each change as it occurs with a timestamp, which can be viewed in the relevant Line Changes endpoint.

However, regardless of when they are made available by the sportsbooks, we ingest them and publish them immediately and update them continuously.

NASCAR Pre-Game Line Closure

Pre-Game lines are closed for betting in the minutes before the race begins. In-Play markets take over from this point.

Soccer

Soccer Pre-Game Line Opening

Odds are generally made available for the following week of matches, even if the team has an interim game in a different competition. Example: if Arsenal have a Premier League game on Saturday against Liverpool, then a Champions League game on Wednesday against Barcelona, then a Premier League game the next Sunday against Everton, the Everton odds will be published the day of, or the day after, the Arsenal game.

This is applicable for basic match odds; other markets may be published in the lead-up to the game.

Soccer Pre-Game Line Changes

Odds update regularly due to changes in player availability, market liquidity etc. We track each change as it occurs with a timestamp, which can be viewed in the relevant Line Changes endpoint.

However, regardless of when they are made available by the sportsbooks, we ingest them and publish them immediately and update them continuously.

Soccer Pre-Game Line Closure

Pre-Game lines are closed for betting in the minutes before the game begins. In-Play markets take over from this point.

Tennis

Tennis Pre-Game Line Opening

Odds will be published for any given match once that match is announced and the competitors confirmed. As there are often qualifying rounds to be played before the tournament brackets are confirmed, this can be quite close to the tournament's start - sometimes three days or less.

Tennis Pre-Game Line Changes

Odds update regularly due to changes in player availability, market liquidity etc. We track each change as it occurs with a timestamp, which can be viewed in the relevant Line Changes endpoint.

However, regardless of when they are made available by the sportsbooks, we ingest them and publish them immediately and update them continuously.

Tennis Pre-Game Line Closure

Pre-Game lines are closed for betting in the minutes before the match or tournament begins. In-Play markets take over from this point.

MMA

MMA Pre-Game Line Opening

Typically odds are made available in the week leading up to the event. Headline fights generally have more markets available early in the week; lower-profile markets may come later.

MMA Pre-Game Line Changes

Odds update regularly due to changes in player availability, market liquidity etc. We track each change as it occurs with a timestamp, which can be viewed in the relevant Line Changes endpoint.

However, regardless of when they are made available by the sportsbooks, we ingest them and publish them immediately and update them continuously.

MMA Pre-Game Line Closure

Pre-Game lines are closed for betting in the minutes before the game begins. In-Play markets take over from this point.

Props and Futures

Props and futures have a more involved process. For advanced bets like these, each sportsbook has a slightly different way of packaging the markets. Naming conventions differ slightly, over/unders are handled in different ways, and so on. Our dedicated team of on-site experts works around the clock to ensure that the various formats can be harmonized and delivered to you in a predictable, clean, aggregated package. Occasionally, as new market types are developed or sportsbooks change their procedures, our team manually works to repackage them; otherwise we use machine learning to apply existing work to each game or event. As such, we minimize the amount of manual time applied to each market.

However, the sheer volume of data, particularly for player props, means that our ingestion time is increased when compared to Full Game Lines and Pre Game Lines. Each market and outcome must be reformatted to reach you in a predictable format; as such, we recommend calling the odds on a 60-second refresh.

This is also important because we cache these odds for longer. That is, because they change less often, and the volume of data is so great, and the amount of computation on our side to package them is longer, there is less and less benefit to calling the endpoints often.

In sum: props and futures represent a much more complex task to package and aggregate for you:

We ensure human intervention is available when needed, but only when needed. Our staff will match and package markets into aggregated buckets, and their actions will be learned by our programs so that anything comparable or predictable is handled automatically.
The vast volume of data and the difference in formats and conventions between sportsbooks means the computation needed to aggregate and package these odds is far, far greater than in the case of Full-Game and Pre-Game lines.
As these are by definition pre-game markets (live props are not supported in Aggregated Odds at this time) and they are less subject to change than the basic, flat lines, we recommend calling the endpoints less often. This also means less bandwidth and storage cost on your side.

Edge Cases and Unusual Events

In some cases odds will not behave in an expected way. While these are highly unusual, they are common enough that we document them here, along with our process for handling these occasional hiccups.

Odds Removed By Sportsbook Operator

There is a field called UnlistedTime on the BettingOutcome table. This denotes the time at which we stop seeing that outcome in the sportsbook feeds, meaning when it is no longer available to bet on.

If an odd was published by a sportsbook then very quickly removed, we still ingest and publish it. This means that in the rare cases of an inaccurate or inappropriate odd being available for a few seconds, we will retain it but Unlist it as soon as the sportsbook does.

Odds Removed By Sportsbook Operator Then Put Back Online

A specific price for a market may be Unlisted, but then re-listed by a sportsbook. In this case, we do not restore the old odds record, but rather create a new one entirely. For example, if a market for a spread changes from -1.5 and a -2.5 and then back to -1.5, the following occurs: the -1.5 is created, then Unlisted. The -2.5 is created, then Unlisted. And then a new -1.5 is created.

This is so we can track the times of when the odds were changed.

Invalid Or Otherwise Unusable Odds

The Aggregated Odds service involves a complex matching operation to ensure that markets are correctly grouped and categorized. On rare occasions a market may be mismatched, creating an invalid result. WHen these markets are created in error, as soon as we detect them, they are removed from the feed entirely. This is the only scenario in which odds are hard-deleted from the output.