A case study in sports law analytics: The debate on widespread point shaving

[摘要] This study outlines the evolution of academic literature generated in response to Wolfers’s (2006) widespread-point-shaving hypothesis, which put forward that roughly 1% of college basketball games involve gambling-related corruption. Researchers attempted to replicate Wolfers’ findings in a variety of settings, examined the logistics involved in the act of point shaving, developed a theoretical model of team strategy, and used a variety of other novel approaches to better understand the root cause of the suspicious statistical anomalies identified. It offers evidence that sports analytics research is highly robust in academic settings because the methods employed and inferences drawn are subjected to the scrutiny of competing researchers having dissenting opinions and a strong incentive to publish.

[关键词] Basketball;gambling;replication;point shaving