It is "official" in reference to the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) which authorized its production and whose staff prepared and/or supervised its various editions.

The work derives some of its structure from both The Whist Reference Book by William Mill Butler, and Ely Culbertson's, The Encyclopedia of Bridge.

In its forward, Editor-in-Chief Richard L. Frey observed that: The only previous Encyclopedia of Bridge was edited by Ely Culbertson and published in 1935 ...

"[6]On its dust jacket, the first edition states: This encyclopedia is the most complete and authoritative book of information, guidance, and instruction for bridge players, ever published.

It covers every aspect of bridge in all bridge-playing countries of the world; it contains complete and lucid definitions of every term; it describes and illustrates every standard bid, every recognized convention, and every type of play.

In 1967 an edition revised for the needs of a British and European audience was published by Paul Hamlyn (London) under the title The Bridge Players' Encyclopedia.

Richard Frey comments on several themes in the foreword to the third edition: We have seen rapid and radical developments in bidding systems; explosions of new cheating scandals and employment of devices to prevent them; the creation of techniques for warning opponents about bids that have unusual meanings ...... the newly uncovered evidence that bridge was known and played before the earliest previous accreditation (to Russia) of its origin and its name.

There are again over 2,500 biographies but newer and stricter criteria were applied and many previous entries have been superseded by new ones; successes in competitions remain in the appropriate event listings.

Again, the pace of change in bridge is great as Richard Frey, now Editor Emeritus having been succeeded as Editor-in-Chief by Henry Francis, notes in the Foreword, ... a quantum leap in the technical material ... many new and intriguing methods and ideas have made their appearance in the past seven years, and some have been widely adopted.

In the Foreword, Alan Truscott notes,The changes in the technical section have been far greater than in any of the earlier editions, reflecting the many theoretical advances in the past decade.

The front inside panel of the dust jacket states: "This work is the most complete and authoritative book of information, guidance and instruction ever published for bridge players."

The Foreword states,This edition has been prepared primarily by Henry Francis, with major contributions and help from Alan Truscott and Barry Rigal.