We identify inefficiency in the National Football League (NFL) gambling market indicative of sticky preferences by bettors. NFL teams that qualified for the playoffs in the prior season are favoured by too large a margin in the opening week of the following season. Bettors view these teams as...

Popular wisdom regarding athletics is that offenses are at a relative disadvantage in the early portion of seasons. The authors present evidence that this anecdotal belief holds true over the 2000-2010 National Football League (NFL) seasons. This is reflected in lower offensive yardage, fewer...

In this paper we analyze the total line betting market for National Basketball Association (NBA) regular season games for the 2009-2012 seasons. Specifically, we divide seasons by week and analyze points scored, total lines and game statistics such as field goal percentage and turnovers. We find...

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...

We study the perceived discrepancy between power conference and mid-major college football teams by examining outcomes of games when these teams face one another. We find that point spreads are set statistically irrationally in games where power conference teams play mid-major teams. We examine...