The Impact of Sentiment on Point Spreads in the College Football Wagering Market

Greg Durham and Tod Perry

Journal of Prediction Markets, 2008, vol. 2, issue 1, 1-27

Abstract: This paper investigates whether sentimental bettors affect the point-spread-formation process in the college football wagering market, as well as whether this market is efficient. Following Avery and Chevalier (1999), this study focuses solely on sources of sentiment that have natural analogues in the stock market, such as predictions of so-called experts, momentum in teams' performances, teams that are highly visible, and teams with high fan avidity. Sentiment relating to expert picks, even though the picks are uninformative, nonetheless is related to intraweek changes in spreads. Also, bettors' sentiment for recent performance against the spread, for teams in major conferences, and for teams with high fan avidity appears to be related to spreads moving during the week. However, betting strategies designed to exploit any anticipated sentimental betting are marginally profitable at best, suggesting that rational arbitrageurs serve to correct most biases in spreads.

JEL-codes: L83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ubpl/jpm/2008/00000002/00000001/art00001 (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:buc:jpredm:v:2:y:2008:i:1:p:1-27

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.predictio ... ex_files/Page418.htm

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Prediction Markets is currently edited by Leighton Vaughan Williams, Nottingham Business School

More articles in Journal of Prediction Markets from University of Buckingham Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Dominic Cortis, University of Malta ().