The Wall Street Journal has an intriguing article about a casino that looks like a huge room for day traders. The article reminded me of a fascinating paper by Steve Levitt investigating why gambling markets are organized differently than financial markets. Recommended reading!
The latest issue of the Journal of Sports Economics is hot off the presses. I have subscribed to the journal for the past two years and always find 1-2 interesting articles to read each issue. The February 2010 issue is no exception. Anyone who is interested in sports economics should consider it a “must read.” Abstracts for each article can be found here.
The NBA’s minimum age rule was the target of criticism earlier this week by Arne Duncan, the US Secretary of Education. His pointed comments can be found here. A follow-up op-ed on Huffington Post was penned by Arn Tellem. Tellem’s op-ed can be found here. Both columns are interesting reads and have garnered a fair amount of press coverage. Tellem’s op-ed includes the following sentence:
“In the predominantly white games of golf, tennis or soccer, no such [minimum] age rule has been proposed.”
I am at a loss to explain the foregoing sentence, as the WTA Tour (women’s professional tennis), LPGA Tour (women’s professional golf), and the ATP World Tour (men’s professional tennis) all have age eligibility rules. The PGA Tour (men’s professional tennis) may have a similar rule as well…I will have to check.
The Baltimore Sun provides an update on sports wagering in Delaware here. Whether other states, especially neighbors such as Maryland and/or New Jersey will try to follow suit remains an interesting related story.
David Biderman has a clever article in the Wall Street Journal on the economic efficiency of three point shooting specialists in the NBA. The article can be found here. An interesting sequel would be how the proliferation of three point specialists (and increased three point shot attempts) has dampened the utility of mid-range jump shots.
I am flying to DC next week in order to attend U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments in the case of American Needle v. NFL. At issue is whether the NFL should be considered a “single entity” under Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The argument is at 10:00AM on January 13, 2010. After oral arguments, I will post my thoughts on this blog. I will also write a short article about the case for Sports Litigation Alert.
If anyone else is going to attend, please let me know. I will be standing in line with other members of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar. It should be interesting!
A new paper by UC Davis professors Christopher R. Knittel and Victor Stango analyzes the impact Tiger Woods has recently had on shareholder value of the companies currently (formerly?) sponsoring Woods. A copy of the paper is here. The paper is short and highly readable. If the authors submit the paper to a journal for formal peer review and publication, I look forward to reading the finished product. At first glance, the authors’ use of endorsor competitors as a quasi-control group appears quite clever.
I am halfway through ex-NBA referee Tim Donaghy’s book, Personal Foul. As Henry Abbott of ESPN.com said, it is a real “page-turner.” Over the course of the next few weeks, I will provide some comments on this blog.
The New York Times has coverage of the relatively recent study published in the Journal of Sports Sciences by Dave Pierce and Kyle Anderson.
The New York Times speculates here.