An Under Bias in the Football Betting Market: Fact or Fiction?: A Note

Ladd Kochman and Randy Goodwin

New York Economic Review, 2006, vol. 37, issue 1, 32-36

Abstract: Betting that total points in a football game will go over or under the Las Vegas number prompts the question whether that number has been inflated to adjust for the documented preference of bettors for the over. If bettors do overbet the over, regular profits should accrue to those betting under the total. Our investigation spanned the 1995-2004 National Football League seasons and found that betting under produced an unimpressive wins-to-bets ratio of 50.4 percent. The lone nonrandom ratio that was not year-specific was the 52.7-percent mark for National Football Conference games over the 2000-2004 years. Once again the market for wagers on football games proved to be remarkably efficient.

Date: 2006
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