Football pools and lotteries: substitute roads to riches?

Abstract

Football pools offer an older alternative to lotto games for gamblers seeking high prizes with low stakes. The article models football pools demand in Spain over nearly 40 years. The introduction of lotto games to the market led to substantial cannibalization of the pools but, subsequently, there is no evidence that the products were substitutes when the relative value for money fluctuated. Entry fee is shown to be a determinant of demand independent of the expected loss per euro, implying that long-odds games should not be analysed as if buyers were acquiring a purely financial asset.

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Loterías y Apuestas del Estado for this research. They are also grateful to David Gulley for helpful comments on the first draft.

Notes