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Research examining how information influences pricing, efficiency, and line accuracy in sports betting markets is common. The existing literature, however, does not consider that the natural release of information through standard game play may be systematically related to changes in line accuracy. We test this hypothesis and find a statistically significant improvement in line accuracy in both the sides and totals markets as more information is released. This indicates the information produced through game play is valuable in improving contest forecasts by both oddsmakers and the market. We also find a reduction in line movement in both the sides and totals markets as more information is released, suggesting forecasts of oddsmakers and the market converge along with an increase in available information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the relationship between outcome uncertainty and television viewership in NCAA Division I men's college basketball. The results demonstrate mixed support for the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis. Viewers prefer contests anticipated to be more certain, but also respond favorably to contests which have higher levels of within-game outcome uncertainty. The results also indicate that these preferences are not static across the season calendar. During postseason play, the preference for anticipated contest certainty is reduced, while the preference for within-game uncertainty is heightened. Given that consumers respond favorably to lower levels of anticipated contest uncertainty, from a policy perspective, there is little evidence that the current NCAA structure-which allows competition between programs with sizeable differences in both revenue and team quality-negatively impacts television viewership or associated revenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We test the integration of repeated decision making of influential agents in asset prices. Our approach exploits a natural experiment in the Major League Baseball (MLB) betting market, where umpire assignments are revealed only for certain games, using over 2.5 million decisions made by these officials. Estimations reveal only partial adjustment to information related to umpire behavioral heterogeneity. We show this is exploitable by informed bettors, providing advantages over more salient, lower quality information. These results suggest that underlying information on influential individual decision making can serve as a high quality indicator of asset values due to persistence across time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies three historical events, listed in the title, representing key changes in the business structure of American college football and then tests to see whether these events are associated with changes in competitive balance. The analysis shows that balance has been relatively stable despite these alterations. The significant effects that are uncovered are confined to single conferences suggesting these events are not tied to widespread changes in balance throughout the sport. Additionally, the margin of victory ratio, a metric accounting for game closeness is introduced. Based on this measure, game uncertainty in individual conferences has improved over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mixed martial arts emerged as a major player in the sports industry during the 2000s, with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) growing into the sport's foremost promotion. Critical to the promotion's management is understanding fan consumption choices. Using economic demand theory, we draw on the spectator motivation and team sports demand literatures to provide an empirical analysis of what drives demand for mixed martial arts events. Our regression models show that economic and scheduling considerations explain the variation in UFC attendance. The popular notion that The Ultimate Fighter reality series served as the impetus for the UFC's growth is unsupported by time series analysis and numerous independent variables in our model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]