Market efficiency and the Greek fixed-odds betting market

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to empirically examine the efficiency of Greek fixed-odds (offline) betting market as offered by OPAP for the period 2016–2019.Design/methodology/approachUsing a four-year data sample of OPAP's opening and closing odds for football matches from all over the world and applying linear probability and probit models, the market efficiency is examined and the existence of possible anomalies is investigated.FindingsThe main findings of research suggest that although the odds are dominated primarily by favorite-longshot bias and secondarily by draw bias, this mispricing cannot prove profitable. However, the opening odds, the margin levels and the market structure provide information that is not fully captured by the closing odds, giving bettors profit opportunities. Thus, findings show that the semi-strong market efficiency is questionable. Finally, competition reduces commissions leading to more efficient odds.Practical implicationsThe conclusions of this study are useful for football betting market and, particularly, for government authorities, bookmakers and bettors. Findings can be extended in future research to prediction tasks.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study about the Greek football betting market. The contribution to the literature lies on the one hand in the examination of a monopolistic land-based betting market, which is being squeezed and threatened by the more competitive online betting market, and on the other hand in the simultaneous examination of the opening and closing odds.

The phenomenon of match-fixing in football

One aspect of the security of sport, which is rarely considered by the organizers of sports events, concerns the different manifestations of match-fixing. The match-fixing of the result of a sports event or any component of it contradicts the established norms and values of the sporting competition, drawn up at the end of the XIX century by Baron Pierre de Coubertin and known as Olympism. Today, match-fixing is one of the phenomena in modern sport. Advertising, publicity, profit largely regulate relations in professional sport, and in full force, this applies to football as the most popular sport in the world. If we look at what has been said so far through the prism of Bulgarian football, it is enough to look at the Bulgarian football championships, whose official sponsor is an online betting company at sporting events and the first football league is named after this company. This same company has sponsorship relations with more than 10 football clubs, and to them we can add the volleyball and basketball federations, as well as some of the brightest representatives of these federations. Noticing this trend of business entering the sport, we set out to explore the opinion of players and their coaches about the manifestation of the phenomenon of match-fixing in Bulgarian football. The results of the survey show the existence of match-fixing at both professional and amateur level and allow us to indicate some steps to prevent such non-sporting techniques from winning.

Gaming, substance use and distress within a cohort of online gamblers

Background: The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) included Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) as a tentative diagnosis and inquires for additional research. The research on gaming is inconsistent regarding measurement approach and diagnostic cut-offs. Some scholars suggest the core approach, accentuating some of the diagnostic criteria to avoid pathologizing harmless behavior. Also, the co-occurrence of gaming and other addictions, gambling in specifically, is frequently reported but poorly understood. The present study aimed to explore gaming within a population of online gamblers in order to evaluate the core approach but also to investigate the possible co-occurrence of different addictions.Design and Methods: The present study is derived from material collected for a study on online gambling. The study addressed 1007 adult individuals from the general population who had gambled for money on an online casino site or an online betting site, on at least 10 occasions during the past 12 months.Results: Both the level of distress and problem gambling increased as the severity of gaming increased. The co-occurrence of problems with alcohol, illicit drug use/prescription sedatives/strong painkillers and gambling was roughly 50% among the addictive gamers.Conclusion: The present study suggests that the core approach manages to distinguish in severity of gaming in regards to interference and comorbidity. We also brought light to the occurrence of gaming within a population of gamblers and our results indicate that this specific group of addicted gamers are particularly burdened by co-occurrent addictive behaviors and severe distress.

Digital Arenas: The regulatory framework and other relevant issues on eSports online betting

The contribution of technological development, in an essential and user-friendly way, to the transition of many aspects of the real world to the digital environment, is constantly creating new habits and new fields of activity. This transition, without any shadow of doubt, leads to new and unknown realities, which, apart from the interest they present, they call for thorough investigation and further regulation, where it is needed. The cases of eSports and online gaming, although not new to the user of the digital age, are of high importance to the investment and commercial world, in terms of their further development and exploitation. In this context, although online betting in eSports has been introduced to the Greek market a few years ago, it is unlikely to be developed according to its dynamics, since issues of legal nature are not settled yet. In order to ensure a secure landscape for eSports online betting, the necessity for transparency and integrity and their protection through regulatory action becomes imperative.

Changes to the playing field: A contemporary study of actual European online sports betting

Background and aimsOnline sports wagering is a popular and still growing gambling activity around the world. Like other types of gambling, it can lead to problems that include devastating financial, social, and health-related harms. The first analysis of actual online sports wagering activity (LaBrie et al., 2007) suggested that levels of financial and time involvement were more moderate than anticipated from earlier self-report studies. However, these findings are now more than a decade old.MethodsThe current study examined actual online sports wagering activity of a similar cohort of 32,262 gamblers who subscribed to a European online betting platform in February 2015 to understand how sports betting might have changed in ten years. Measures included subscriber characteristics, betting activities, and transactional activities.ResultsPlayers placed a median of 15 bets during the 8-month study period, made a median of 2.5 bets per betting day, had a median bet size of 6.1 euros, and experienced a median net loss of 25 euros. We were able to distinguish highly involved bettors in the top 2% of total wagered, net loss, and number of bets, whose behavior differed from that of the rest of the sample.Discussion and ConclusionsSports wagering behavior has remained relatively stable over time despite legislative changes and an increase in popularity, with a small subset of subscribers exhibiting disproportionately high engagement, transactional activity, and in-game betting. Further investigation of individual trajectories of wagering behavior and engagement with different types of sports wagering products is merited.

Online Betting Intensity is Linked with Extraversion and Conscientiousness

INTRODUCTION. Extraversion and conscientiousness are well-studied personality traits associated with reward processing and goal prioritization, respectively, and bear on individual differences in financial risk-taking. Using unique large datasets, we investigated the link between these traits and male online gamblers’ actual betting participation and intensity. METHODS. We combined datasets containing online horse betting data (during 2015-2016) from the Finnish monopoly betting company; administrative registry data from Statistics Finland; and personality trait measures from the Finnish Defence Forces corresponding to extraversion and conscientiousness as defined in the five-factor model. We modelled associations between these traits and betting participation (n=471,968) and intensity (n=11,217) among male horse bettors (age=36–53). RESULTS. Controlling for demographics and IQ, individuals scoring high on conscientiousness (or extraversion) were less (or more) likely to bet, and less (or more) intensive bettors – even when personality was measured 16–34 years before betting occurred. One SD personality score increase represented an annual decrease (conscientiousness) or increase (extraversion) of €570-754 in spending. CONCLUSION. Extraversion and conscientiousness are implicated in real-life financial behavior with tangible consequences for individuals. These effects are stronger than for many known demographic variables used in gambling studies, and persist up to 34 years after personality has been measured.