Grand Challenge First-Year Seminar: Sports Betting, Highs and Lows; Your Brain on Stats

Course Number: 66-155

The Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association struck down the federal ban on sports betting. Since then, the United States sports betting industry has rapidly grown into a $10 billion industry. By 2023, 67% of all college students were betting on games, according to a study from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Gambling experts believe that number is likely higher now thanks in large part to the pervasiveness of apps (e.g. DraftKings or FanDuel). Anyone in a state with legalized sports betting can download a popular retail sportsbook app and place a bet in seconds.

In this course, we will explore sports betting through the lens of statistics, cognition and neuroscience. We will discuss the probabilities underlying the vast menu of sports bets and the difficulties in estimating these probabilities reliably. In parallel, we will consider cognitive biases in decision making, the neural substrates of decision making in the social and emotional brain, and how these processes can change with addiction. As part of this class, students will participate in discussions and collaborate on various assignments such as placing bets on real sporting events through a fake sportsbook to actively demonstrate the lessons covered throughout the semester.

Academic Year: 2025-2026
Semester(s): Spring