The DOI matches its Crossref record; 16 of the 16 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Failing to Cover: Point Shaving or Statistical Abnormality?
Abstract
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 side. This finding is consistent with point shaving by favorites, who lose by too little, and underdogs who lose by too much. On average, however, the outcome is consistent with the no-point shaving hypothesis. We compare regular-season and post-season results and find that this effect disappears in the more closely observed NCAA tournament games.
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Cites
Applied Smoothing Techniques for Data Analysis: The Kernel Approach with S-Plus Illustrations
BOWMAN, A. W., & Azzalini, A. (1997) · doi:10.1093/oso/9780198523963.001.0001 · Cited by 1,853
Wolfers, J., & Zitzewitz, E. (2004) · Journal of Economic Perspectives · doi:10.1257/0895330041371321 · Cited by 889
Point Shaving: Corruption in NCAA Basketball
Wolfers, J. (2006) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/000282806777211757 · Cited by 166
Information Efficiency in Financial and Betting Markets
Williams, L. V. (2005) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511493614 · Cited by 86
POINT SHAVING IN COLLEGE BASKETBALL: A CAUTIONARY TALE FOR FORENSIC ECONOMICS
Bernhardt, D., & Heston, S. L. (2010) · Economic Inquiry · doi:10.1111/j.1465-7295.2009.00253.x · Cited by 42
Measuring cartel rents in the college basketball player recruitment market
Brown, R. W. (1994) · Applied Economics · doi:10.1080/00036849400000058 · Cited by 40
Widespread Corruption in Sports Gambling: Fact or Fiction?
Borghesi, R. (2008) · Southern Economic Journal · doi:10.1002/j.2325-8012.2008.tb00881.x · Cited by 30
Expectations and Voting in the NCAA Football Polls
Paul, R. J., Weinbach, A. P., & Coate, P. (2007) · Journal of Sports Economics · doi:10.1177/1527002506287696 · Cited by 20
Paul, R. J., & Weinbach, A. P. (2011) · Journal of Sports Economics · doi:10.1177/1527002510385904 · Cited by 20
A test of the widespread-point-shaving theory
Borghesi, R., & Dare, W. (2009) · Finance Research Letters · doi:10.1016/j.frl.2009.04.004 · Cited by 18
NCAA ``Point Shaving'' as an Artifact of the Regression Effect and the Lack of Tie Games
Johnson, N. (2009) · Journal of Sports Economics · doi:10.1177/1527002508327388 · Cited by 14
POINT SHAVING IN THE NFL GAMBLING MARKET: A BOOTSTRAP INVESTIGATION
Diemer, G. (2012) · The Journal of Prediction Markets · doi:10.5750/jpm.v3i3.465 · Cited by 8
Self-citationDiemer, G. (2011) · Journal of Sports Economics · doi:10.1177/1527002511414913 · Cited by 7
Self-citationPaul, R. J., & Weinbach, A. P. (2012) · Journal of Sports Economics · doi:10.1177/1527002511416367 · Cited by 4
INTERNET SPORTS BOOKS OPERATING IN AN INEFFICIENT MARKETPLACE
Diemer, G. (2013) · The Journal of Gambling Business and Economics · doi:10.5750/jgbe.v3i1.539 · Cited by 3
Self-citation(1998) · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- LeedsM. A. & von AllmenP. (2010). The economics of sports. Boston, MA: Pearson.
- SeymourH. (1960). Baseball: The early years. London: Oxford University Press.
Cited by
A case study in sports law analytics: The debate on widespread point shaving
Borghesi, R. (2015) · Journal of Sports Analytics · doi:10.3233/jsa-150011 · Cited by 9
The Point Spread as a Reference Point: Evidence from the National Basketball Association
Diemer, G., & Leeds, M. (2022) · Journal of Applied Sport Management · doi:10.7290/jasm14cbdg · Cited by 2
Self-citationCorruption in Sport: Insiders and Outsiders
Andreff, W. (2019) · Palgrave Pivots in Sports Economics · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-28479-4_1 · Cited by 2
Grant, D. (2018) · Springer texts in business and economics · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-01734-7_10 · Cited by 1
Point shaving? A novel experiment and new insights
Borghesi, R., Paul, R. J., & Weinbach, A. P. (2024) · Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance · doi:10.1016/j.jbef.2024.100935 · Cited by 1
Metadata
- Authors
- Diemer, G., & Leeds, M. A.
- Affiliations
- Chestnut Hill College (US)
- Temple University (US)
- ORCID
- Leeds, Michael A.
- Venue
- International Journal of Sport Finance
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2013-08
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 175-191
- ISSN
- 1558-6235 (ISSN-L)
- 1930-076X
- OpenAlex
- W280374461
- Semantic Scholar
- 1aa091444c8fce39731d11ca2a06cd59cd0ea734
- Cited by
- 9
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 1.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
- Locations
- International Journal of Sport Finance (publishedVersion)
- International Journal of Sport Finance (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Sports Analytics and Performance
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Doping in Sports
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Benford’s Law and Fraud Detection
- Keywords
- college basketball, NCAA tournament, sports corruption, betting markets
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