Market efficiency and behavioral biases in the WNBA betting market

Rodney J. Paul; Andrew P. Weinbach

doi:10.3390/ijfs2020193

Market efficiency and behavioral biases in the WNBA betting market

Rodney J. Paul, Andrew P. Weinbach

Department of Sport Management

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The betting market for the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a thin financial market, which does not attract much interest from sports bettors. Given these characteristics, it is possible that profitable wagering strategies could exist for informed bettors of the WNBA. Using betting data on the WNBA from 2007–2012, we find that simple betting strategies do not earn statistically significant returns. WNBA bettors are like NBA bettors; however, in that they strongly prefer the best teams, particularly when they are on the road. Despite this clear bias, betting against the most popular public wagers is not found to earn statistically significant profits.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	193-202
Number of pages	10
Journal	International Journal of Financial Studies
Volume	2
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs2020193
State	Published - Jun 2014

Keywords

Behavioral biases
Efficient markets
Gambling

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Finance

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10.3390/ijfs2020193

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abstract = "The betting market for the Women{\textquoteright}s National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a thin financial market, which does not attract much interest from sports bettors. Given these characteristics, it is possible that profitable wagering strategies could exist for informed bettors of the WNBA. Using betting data on the WNBA from 2007–2012, we find that simple betting strategies do not earn statistically significant returns. WNBA bettors are like NBA bettors; however, in that they strongly prefer the best teams, particularly when they are on the road. Despite this clear bias, betting against the most popular public wagers is not found to earn statistically significant profits.",

keywords = "Behavioral biases, Efficient markets, Gambling",

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Market efficiency and behavioral biases in the WNBA betting market

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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