Consumption Benefits and Gambling: Evidence From the NCAA Basketball Betting Market

Brad Humphreys, Rodney Paul and Andrew Weinbach

No 2010-7, Working Papers from University of Alberta, Department of Economics

Abstract: The determinants of the total number of bets placed on games from three on-line sports books are analyzed for the 2008‐9 NCAA basketball season. Betting volume depends on television coverage, temporal factors, the quality of the teams, and the expected closeness of the contest. Our results support the notion that consumption benefits motivate gambling rather than financial gain. Preferences of bettors appear similar to those of sports fans, suggesting that modeling gamblers as wealth‐maximizing investors may not be appropriate, and supports the predictions of the model of gambling developed by Conlisk (1993).

Keywords: gambling; sports betting; bet volume; consumption value (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G12 L83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2010-03-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-spo
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Consumption benefits and gambling: Evidence from the NCAA basketball betting market (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:albaec:2010_007

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