It is shown that the n-player lottery contest admits a best-response potential (Voorneveld, 2000, Economics Letters). This is true also when the contest technology reflects the possibility of a draw. The result implies, in particular, the existence of a non-trivial two-player zero-sum game that...

We analyze the revenue-enhancing potential of favoring specific contestants in complete information all-pay auctions and lottery contests with several heterogeneous contestants. Two instruments of favoritism are considered: head starts that are added to the bids of specific contestants and...

We develop the theory of Kelly and Thorp in analyzing the optimal bet sizes for blackjack by incorporating the practical considerations of players wherein only a finite number of plays shall occur as well as pursuing maximizing risk-adjusted returns. We show that the ratio of return to bet size...

This study explores the optimal payout structure and prize distribution of instant (scratch-off) lottery games. Using ticket sales data for 185 instant lottery games sold between 2007 and 2011 by the Maryland State Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, we calculate the price elasticity of demand...

We study the incentives of players to disclose information on their private valuations of the prize ahead of a rent-seeking contest. We show that information sharing can arise in equilibrium if types are concentrated enough, whereas sharing information is strictly dominated if types are...

The literature on aggregative games, which has been applied in the study of contests, has focused on simultaneous games. We apply aggregative games techniques in a novel fashion in the analysis of sequential lottery contests with n players. It is shown that: (1) there exists a unique subgame...

We study ex-ante priority respecting (ex-ante stable) lotteries in the context of object allocation under thick priorities. We show that ex-ante stability as a fairness condition is very demanding: Only few agent-object pairs have a positive probability of being matched in an ex-ante stable...