Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Economics, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Zugl.: Kiel, Universiẗat, Diss., 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 174-180).

Thesis (M.A.)--California State University Channel Islands, 2008. / Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters Of Science in Mathematics. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed October 25, 2009).

According to the development of the gambling industry and the changes of gambling concepts, the gambler participation rate has raised gradually. Moreover, the importance of living quality and diversity is being highlighted nowadays. People choose to join gambling activities in order to fulfill a dream or to acquire the excitement, for example, buying the fantastic lotteries or the extremely exciting sports betting. The purpose of the present study is to explore the relationships among gambling motivation, types of gambling activities, and gambling involvement. To test the accuracy of hypotheses, 827 self-report data were collected from internet-based and paper-based questionnaires. The results indicate that gambling motivation significantly influences the choice of gambling activities; the choice of gambling activities significantly influences the level of gambling involvement; gambling motivation significantly influences the level of gambling involvement. To be more specific, the results also suggest that gamblers are more likely to participate in the skill of gambling with higher intrinsic motivation, and these people have higher gambling involvement. Furthermore, the choice of gambling activities will mediate the relationship between gambling motivation and involvement. At the end of the research, the implications for practices and the suggestions for future researchers are discussed.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Kiel.

Project report (M.S.) -- Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: Bayesian; NFL; Bradley-Terry. Includes bibliographical references (p. 54-55).

No description available.

No description available.

Each year millions of dollars are wagered on the NFL during the season. A few people make some money, but most often the only real winner is the sports book. In this project, the effect of data transformation on the paired comparison model of Glickman and Stern (1998) is explored. Usual transformations such as logarithm and square-root are used as well as a transformation involving a threshold. The motivation for each of the transformations if to reduce the influence of blowouts on future predictions. Data from the 2003 and 2004 NFL seasons are examined to see if these transformations aid in improving model fit and prediction rate against a point spread. Strategies for model-based wagering are also explored.

The purpose of the current study is to determine whether eliciting the need for assimilation or the need for differentiation influences individuals’ identification with a given team. Team identification is defined as a fan’s psychological connection to a team; that is, the extent to which the fan views the team as an extension of him or herself (Wann, Melnick, Russell, & Pease, 2001). It is important to understand potential factors that may motivate and potentially increase one’s identification with a particular team. The sample consisted of 106 participants attending Western Kentucky University. The participants completed the Sport Fandom Questionnaire (SFQ) and the Need for Affiliation (nAff) scale. Participants were presented with one of three randomly assigned scenarios, and were asked to transcribe two memories, dependent upon the previously assigned scenario. Following this, the gambling scenario was described. Participants rated how identified they were with both the underdog and favored team, regardless of their choice. It was hypothesized that those who are primed to experience the feelings of assimilation will wager more money on and be more highly identified with a team that is a prohibitive favorite. Also, it was hypothesized that those who are primed to experience the feelings of differentiation will wager more money on and be more highly identified with a team that is a large underdog. Results indicated that the hypotheses were not supported; however, significance was approached, as participants who were primed for feelings of differentiation tended to choose the underdog football team. Regardless of condition, participants tended to wager more money on the favorite football team, as opposed to the underdog football team.