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Sonic Thunder vs. Brian the Snail : Are people affected by uninformative racehorse names?

Author

Listed:
  • Oliver Merz

    (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich)

  • Raphael Flepp

    (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich)

  • Egon Franck

    (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich)

Abstract

This paper examines whether individuals’ decision making is affected by fast-sounding horse names in a betting exchange market environment. In horse racing, the name of a horse does not depend on the horse’s performance and is thus uninformative. If positive affect towards fast-sounding horse names is present, we expect less accurate prices (winning probabilities) and lower returns due to the increased demand for these bets. Using over 3 million horse bets, we find evidence that the winning probabilities of bets on horses with fast-sounding names are overstated, which impairs the prediction accuracy of such bets. This finding implies that prices in betting exchange markets are not efficient, as they become distorted by incorporating affective, misleading information from a horse’s fast-sounding name. This bias translates into significantly lower betting returns for horses classified as fast-sounding compared to the returns for all other horses.

Suggested Citation

  • Oliver Merz & Raphael Flepp & Egon Franck, 2020. "Sonic Thunder vs. Brian the Snail : Are people affected by uninformative racehorse names?," Working Papers 384, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    • Handle: RePEc:zrh:wpaper:384
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Raphael Flepp & Oliver Merz & Egon Franck, 2024. "When the league table lies: Does outcome bias lead to informationally inefficient markets?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(1), pages 414-429, January.
    2. Dave Cliff & James Hawkins & James Keen & Roberto Lau-Soto, 2021. "Implementing the BBE Agent-Based Model of a Sports-Betting Exchange," Papers 2108.02419, arXiv.org.
    3. Dave Cliff, 2021. "BBE: Simulating the Microstructural Dynamics of an In-Play Betting Exchange via Agent-Based Modelling," Papers 2105.08310, arXiv.org.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Affect heuristic; Decision making; Market efficiency; Betting industry; Horse Racing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - General
    • G40 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - General
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism

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