Professor Pinhas Dannon of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Beer Yaakov Mental Health Center reported new experimental evidence that demonstrates that knowledge of the game makes no difference in the results of sports betting on March 19, 2013, in the journal Psychopathology.
In a study of soccer, the researchers compared the betting results of three groups of participants, including 53 professional sports gamblers, 34 soccer fans who were knowledgeable about the sport but had never gambled, and 78 non-gamblers with no prior knowledge of soccer at all. All participants placed bets on the final scores of the 16 second-round matches of the Champion's League, organized by the Union of European Football Associations.
No difference was found in the results of the most experienced sports gamblers, the most knowledgeable soccer fans, and the totally inexperienced. Two of the least knowledgeable actually made the most money betting.
The object of the research was to demonstrate that sports gamblers have a sense of control that is over active and must be destroyed if a person has a gambling addiction problem.
The facts that no person can accurately guess the outcomes of a sports contest regardless of their knowledge of the game or their experience as a gambler will have absolutely no affect on the millions lost on the upcoming NCAA basketball playoffs. Bookies know this.
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