FiT Publishing

Fantasy sports is a favorite form of sports consumption, and sports betting is becoming increasingly more popular and accessible. Following the recent Supreme Court decision concerning legalization, many fantasy sports operators are now incorporating sports betting into their platforms to capitalize on this opportunity. However, little research examines the motivations behind why some fantasy players bet on sports while others do not. Using a trait-based model, we investigate the likelihood that fantasy sports players would also engage in sports betting, revealing that traits are...Read more

Differentiating and defining games of skill versus chance have major legal implications when classifying gambling, especially in relation to daily fantasy sports in the United States. This paper provides a theoretical discussion and introduces an empirical approach to analyzing game player pricing mechanisms. If game pricing mechanisms are fully efficient—player prices fully reflect the expected contributions from players—then that game is one of chance since there is no opportunity for skill to play a role in outcomes. This paper examines player prices from DraftKings’ daily fantasy...Read more

Due in part to a $200 million advertising campaign, daily fantasy sport (DFS) participation exploded in 2015. With faster payouts and unlimited lineup options, the activity has added to an already thriving fantasy sports industry. However, little is known about the distinct attitudes and behaviors that drive DFS participants. The current study examined 511 participants who played DFS-only, traditional, season-long fantasy football (TFS), and those who played both activities for motive and behavioral differences. Results indicated statistically significant motive scores differences across...Read more

The possibility that coaches, players, or referees might be involved in point shaving has been a subject of debate since Wolfers’s (2006) controversial finding that favorites in NCAA college basketball games fail to cover point spreads with disturbing frequency. We reconcile Wolfers’s finding with evidence provided by Borghesi (2008), Borghesi and Dare (2009), and others that heavy favorites are not, on average, less likely to cover the point spread. We find that the distribution of game outcomes is bimodal, with one peak on one side of the “no corruption” outcome and one peak on the other...Read more

The last hour of betting for the wagering market in the National Football League (NFL) was examined. In a sample of offshore sportsbooks, nearly a quarter of all bets on NFL games occured in the last hour before kickoff. Bets were shown not to be balanced between each side of the betting proposition. When the betting percentage on the favorite increases in the last hour of betting, there is a simple strategy that has shown to earn statistically significant profits: betting against the public by wagering on the underdog. Unlike horse racing, in which informed bettors are assumed to wager...Read more

Levitt (2004) suggested that sportsbooks do not set prices in the NFL to clear markets, as was commonly assumed, but set prices to maximize profits. This paper uses actual betting data from four sportsbooks to test the Levitt (2004) hypothesis in the NBA. For a sample of the 2004-05 to 2006-07 seasons, it is shown that favorites receive a disproportionate share of NBA pointspread bets. In addition, the percentage of bets the favorite receives increases with each additional point of the pointspread. In the totals market, it is shown that overs receive a much higher percentage of bets...Read more

The sports gambling industry represents a multi-billion dollar enterprise composed of a variety of activities, the composition of which is under constant debate. Among the topics of importance is the effect of sports gambling (both legal and illegal) on the attitudes and behaviors of sport fans. In particular, investigation into the nature and extent of involvement in activities such as betting on sport events and fantasy sport participation—along with any resultant effects on attitudes and more ‘traditional’ forms of sport fan behavior— could be of interest to sport marketing scholars and...Read more

The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) prohibits state lotteries that employ a wagering scheme related to the outcome of sports contests (Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, 2010). Four states (Oregon, Nevada, Delaware, and Montana) which had operated sports betting schemes before the passage of PASPA were provided a limited exemption from PASPA. PASPA “grandfathered” gambling schemes in these states “to the extent that the scheme was conducted by that State” between 1976 and 1990. Following the passage of PASPA, only two states, Nevada and Oregon,...Read more

In the spring of 2007, Jordan’s, a Boston area furniture retailer, attracted the attention of New England fans, media, and sport marketers with an innovative promotion entitled “Jordan’s Monster Deal.” In television commercials, the energetic president of Jordan’s Furniture enthusiastically announced: “EVERY Sofa, EVERY Sectional, EVERY Dining Table, EVERY Bed, EVERY Mattress … can be YOURS FREE if the Red Sox win the World Championship in 2007.” As an official sponsor of the Boston Red Sox, Jordan’s held the rights to designate itself the “Official Furniture Store” of the Boston Red Sox....Read more

The fantasy sports industry continues to present interesting legal issues for sport managers. Last year, this column featured a discussion of C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing, Inc. v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media, L.P. (2006, 2007) which held that an operator of a fantasy sports league was not infringing on the players’ state law publicity rights and that the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution preempted the players’ state law publicity rights (Grady, 2007). The case that is the subject of this column identifies yet another issue surrounding fantasy sports. In Humphrey...Read more