The Sports Betting Supply Chain: From Data to Your Screen

A single NFL point spread that appears on your screen involves at least six companies, three data handoffs, and a pipeline that runs from a stadium in Green Bay to a server cluster in New Jersey to a mobile app in your pocket. The sports betting supply chain is an infrastructure story as much as a gambling story, and understanding it clarifies why odds differ across platforms, why some books are faster than others, and where value hides in the system.

What Does the Supply Chain Look Like End to End?

The supply chain has six distinct layers, each with its own participants and economics:

Layer 1: Data Capture. Trained operators in stadiums and broadcast centers tag every play in real time. Modern venues also deploy tracking hardware — cameras, RFID chips in footballs, player-worn sensors — that generates spatial and movement data at high frequency.

Layer 2: Data Processing. Raw event data flows to provider processing centers (Sportradar, Genius Sports). Here it is validated, enriched with derived statistics (win probability, expected points, pace metrics), and formatted for downstream consumption.

Layer 3: Distribution. Processed data is pushed to sportsbook clients via low-latency APIs. Distribution networks are geographically optimized, with data centers co-located near major sportsbook infrastructure in New Jersey, Nevada, and the UK.

Layer 4: Pricing. Each sportsbook feeds incoming data into its proprietary pricing models. Models recalculate odds, risk management systems adjust for current exposure, and updated prices are pushed to the trading layer.

Layer 5: Trading Platform. Consumer-facing sportsbook applications display odds, accept wagers, and manage user accounts. This layer includes web and mobile apps, payment processing, KYC/AML compliance, and customer support.

Layer 6: Aggregation and Comparison. Platforms like Odds Reference pull odds from multiple sportsbooks and prediction markets to provide cross-platform comparison. This layer serves bettors, analysts, and media by making the full market visible in one view.

Who Are the Key Companies at Each Layer?

The economics concentrate at the extremes. Leagues and data providers capture value upstream through exclusive data rights. Sportsbook operators capture value downstream through vig. The middle layers (platform tech, odds compilation) operate on thinner margins under competitive pressure.

How Does Information Flow Through the System?

Information flows in one primary direction (field to consumer) but with important feedback loops:

The forward flow is: on-field event occurs, data is captured and transmitted to a processing center, processed data is distributed to sportsbooks, sportsbook models update prices, updated prices appear on consumer platforms.

The feedback loop is: consumer betting activity signals information back to the sportsbook. Sharp betting action on one side indicates the market price may be wrong. The sportsbook adjusts, and this adjusted price flows to aggregation platforms, completing the information cycle.

Our analysis at Odds Reference sits at the aggregation layer. We capture prices from across the supply chain — sportsbooks, prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket, and community forecasting platforms — and present them in a unified view. The cross-platform spread between these sources reveals where each layer’s information converges and where it diverges.

Where Does Latency Enter the System?

Each layer introduces latency:

For pre-match betting, this latency is irrelevant. For live in-game betting — now exceeding 50% of volume on major US sportsbooks — every millisecond matters. A bettor watching a broadcast with a 5-second delay from the live event can exploit sportsbooks whose data pipeline is slower than the broadcast.

Sportsbooks defend against this with automated market suspension. When the data feed signals a potentially significant event, live markets suspend within milliseconds and reopen only after the pricing engine has fully processed the update.

How Does This Relate to Prediction Markets?

Prediction markets operate on a compressed version of the same supply chain. Data capture is often an API call to the resolution source rather than an in-stadium operation. Processing is minimal (the event either happened or it did not). Distribution is the platform’s own order book or AMM.

The key structural difference: sportsbooks pay for proprietary data feeds and employ pricing teams that set the initial odds. Prediction markets outsource pricing entirely to participants. The market price emerges from peer-to-peer trading rather than house-set lines.

This means prediction markets have lower infrastructure costs but also depend entirely on participant quality for price accuracy. A prediction market with no sharp participants will produce less accurate prices than a sportsbook with a professional trading team, regardless of how well the platform is built.

Our dataset tracks this dynamic across both sportsbooks and prediction markets. Where events are listed on both, the Odds Reference dashboard shows whether the sportsbook or the prediction market converges on the accurate price faster.

Key Takeaways

• The supply chain runs from on-field data capture through processing, distribution, and pricing to consumer display, with 1-3 seconds of total latency on optimized systems
• Sportradar and Genius Sports dominate the data layer; DraftKings, FanDuel, and BetMGM dominate the consumer layer
• Exclusive league data partnerships are the most defensible position in the chain, worth billions in total contract value
• Prediction markets compress this supply chain by outsourcing pricing to participants rather than employing in-house trading teams
• Cross-platform price comparison at the aggregation layer reveals where each segment of the market has an information edge