Sports Investing Index: February 2012 Performance

  • Commentary on Performance – February 2012

After a nice run-up during December, the Sports Investing Index was down slightly in January (-1.1%), and then had a difficult February (-8.0%).   The Index is now dominated by basketball and hockey action, as sports investors eagerly await March Madness and Major League Baseball to commence.  The concept of the Sports Investing Index was introduced in a paper presented to the 2012 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.  The information on this site is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Use of this information in violation of any federal, state, or local laws is prohibited. Sports Investing Index performance notes: Most sports have been generally upward-trending, with a slightly upward bias, but the Index has been held back by certain sports that have had difficult periods.  For instance, in February, NCAAB lost -12.4%.  This created the loss of -8.0% in February, dragging down gains in the NBA and NHL. �

  • During January, sports that were positive included: NCAAB and NFL.
  • The losing sports in January included: NBA, NCAAF, and NHL.
  • We are looking forward to April, when the Index will include Major League Baseball action.

Sports Insights publishes a Sports Investing Index to reflect the performance of applying contrarian value approaches to the major US sports marketplaces.  The origins of the Sports Investing Index were published in our book, “Sports Investing: Profiting from Point Spreads.”

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Sports Investing Index Details

  • The Sports Investing Index is based on Sports Insights Square Plays. (Square Plays are the day’s most lopsided games in terms of the public betting trends)
  • Additional indexes and benchmarks may be developed over time.
  • Inception: 2003
  • Index performance will be published monthly.
  • Sports Covered:  NFL, College Football, NBA, College Basketball, MLB, NHL

Figure 1: Sports Investing Index (August 2003 – February 2012)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recent Performance

Below is recent performance for the Sports Investing Index — along with other financial index benchmarks, including the S&P 500 and intermediate-term US government bonds.

Table 1: Index Performance (February 2012)

Index February January 2012 Year-To-Date 2011
Sports Investing Index -8.0 -1.1 -9.0 -12.6
S&P 500 4.3 4.5 9.0 2.1
Govt Bonds -0.8 0.8 0.0 4.7


Other Index Features

  • Investable – Sports Insights Members are able to invest in the index by following Sports Insights Square Plays.  Sports Insights generally publishes its Square Plays at least one hour before sporting events.
  • Each Square Play will represent a play made while risking 1% (each unit represents 1% at risk, per play). 
  • Represents a strategy of investing in the US sports marketplace using a contrarian value approach.
  • Inherent return — based on research, there appears to be an inherent return in the sports marketplace based on a systematic, contrarian approach to the sports marketplace.
  • The Index can be reconstructed by reviewing Sports Insights Square Plays.  Media can receive historical monthly performance by contacting us at Contact Us 

For Media Only: additional information, statistics, high-resolution screen shots, and interviews available –  please Contact Us.

Disclaimer
We do not guarantee that the trends and biases we’ve found will continue to exist. It is impossible to predict the future. Any serious academic research in the field of “market efficiencies” recognizes that inefficiencies may disappear over time. Once inefficiencies are discovered, it is only a matter of time before the market corrects itself. We do not guarantee our data is error-free. However, we’ve tried our best to make sure every score and percentage is correct.