From First Downs to Finance: What Football Betting Reveals about Cognition and Investor Behavior

This study leverages an extensive football betting data set to explore cognitive boundaries, detect sex-based variations in behavior and performance, improve our understanding of financial market price efficiency, and identify potential ethical issues associated with sportsbook marketing practices.We find that bettors who place larger wagers, have superior experience, are female, and/or are in closer geographic proximity to the bet-on team are significantly more likely to profit.On the other hand, men and those placing late wagers and/or bets on standalone games or divisional matchups are statistically more likely to lose.Results extend existing academic research that focuses on the information processing abilities of stock investors and add insight into differences between the decision-making patterns of men and women.We demonstrate a need for tightly focused gambling regulations and educational interventions to help prevent the exploitation of highly vulnerable young male bettors.