Sports betting has changed dramatically over the past decade. Following the legalization of sports betting across much of the United States and recent developments in prediction markets, it has become a major industry that raises fascinating questions about economics, finance and public policy.
For the past few years, I have taught a university course on the economics of sports betting at University College Dublin. The course examines topics such as sportsbook pricing, betting exchanges, prediction markets, betting strategy, favourite–longshot bias and market efficiency.
I have made the lecture notes from the course freely available. They are intended for university students, so they contain some mathematics and worked examples, but many readers interested in understanding how betting markets work may also find them useful.
If any instructors are interested in using some of this material, just send me an email.
My forthcoming book, Fine Margins: How Economics Explains Sports Betting, grew out of this course. While it covers many of the same ideas, it is written for a much broader audience. The book explains the economics of sports betting without requiring any mathematics or calculus.