Publication failure and continuity

C.1 Normal operation

• Official close: 09:00 Central Time (10:00 Eastern) on the calendar day after any day with an official result.
• Process: an automated close runs on a hosted scheduler. It reads results, reconciles each new result against a second independent source, appends events to the hash-chained ledger, runs the full test suite, and publishes only if every test passes.
• Retries: the scheduler has more than one dispatch slot on each close day. A held close is retried automatically. Every close, on time or late, is recorded with its cause at majorleaguemarkets.com/governance/close-record and in /api/v1/close-record.
• Notice: if a close is not published by 10:00 Central, MLM notifies each licensee's named contact by email with the cause and the expected time.

C.2 Late close (published the same day)

The venue's final settlement for a contract that settles at that close waits for the published value. Suggested rule text: "If the Source Agency has not published the official close by the final settlement time, final settlement occurs at the Source Agency's first publication of that close." No contract settles on a provisional or estimated value.

C.3 Close not published within five business days (fallback)

If MLM has not published a close within five business days after it was due, other than because a league has not published the result:

1. The settlement value is the value the published methodology produces from the official league standings and bracket for that date.
2. The venue may compute that value itself, or have it computed, using the published methodology, the Settlement Procedures' ranked sources (league official results, then the Associated Press, then ESPN) and the last published ledger as the starting point.
3. The venue discloses that it used the fallback and publishes the computation.
4. When MLM resumes, it publishes the missed closes. If MLM's value differs from the venue's fallback value for a contract the venue has already settled, the venue's settlement stands.

The license grants the venue the rights needed for this purpose. The methodology is public; the ledger format is documented; the code path is deterministic.

C.4 Results not yet official

If a league has not published a final result by a close (suspended game, protest, review), nothing posts for that game. The value waits for the next close at which the result is official. This is not a publication failure.

C.5 Discontinuation

MLM will not discontinue an index while any contract referencing it is listed. If MLM ends a license or ceases to publish an index, it continues calculating and publishing that index through the final settlement of every contract listed before that date (license, wind-down clause). If MLM itself ceases to exist, C.3 applies and the venue settles on the methodology.

C.6 Corrections

A league change to a result before a close is absorbed. After a close, it posts as a dated forward correction event at the next close. A published close is never restated, and a contract that has already settled is never reopened. A correction can lower a constituent's level; it is the only way a level falls during a season.

C.7 Records

Every ledger is append-only and hash-chained, with each event's source, reconciliation result and hash. MLM retains every ledger, reconciliation file and close record permanently and makes them available to a licensee and, through the licensee, its regulator.