The Sensitivity of Findings of Expected Bookmaker Profitability

Kevin Krieger, Andy Fodor and Greg Stevenson

Journal of Sports Economics, 2013, vol. 14, issue 2, 186-202

Abstract: Levitt demonstrates that, contrary to conventional wisdom, sports books may not try to balance the money wagered on the sides of a game but instead exploit preferences of bettors in order to maximize expected profits. Levitt’s findings are based on unique data from a wagering contest of the 2002 National Football League (NFL) season. Reconsideration based on 2004-2010 data from a similar contest yields findings of a dramatically smaller increase in expected profitability from strategic line making. Additionally, the traditional underperformance of favorites in athletic wagering may have somewhat subsided, which would also imply reduced bookmaker profits compared to those Levitt reports.

Keywords: sports wagering; efficient markets; gambling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1527002511418516 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:jospec:v:14:y:2013:i:2:p:186-202

DOI: 10.1177/1527002511418516

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Sports Economics
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().