Alpha in Final Four tickets?
Feb 17th, 2008 | Filed under: CAPM / Alpha TheoryAfter Duke’s absolutely crushing and embarrassing defeat of North Carolina earlier this month (okay, not quite “crushing“), we got to thinking about the upcoming US College Basketball championships (a.k.a. “March Madness”). As TV commentators pointed out ad nauseam, every time Duke has beaten Carolina when Carolina was ranked in the top 5, Duke has gone on to the Final Four. If only there was a way for us to get tickets to this event contingent on Duke actually being there.
Turns out that there is now a service that let’s you do just that. Yoonew is a start-up that has created a “free market” for tickets to events like the Final Four and Super Bowl. By bizarre coincidence (or guided by the hand of God), Alpha Male learned about this firm at the O’Reilly Money:Tech conference in New York the day after the Duke/Carolina game .
If you thought Steve Sapra’s application of the CAPM to NFL betting was interesting, you’ll like this story. Yoonew has created a “options market” for sports tickets so you don’t have to wait to find out of your team actually makes it to big game. Now you can buy an option on the ticket - to be executed only if your team is successful. Of course, if your team chokes you are out your initial payment. But the risk may be worth it though, since buying a ticket at game time could be many times more expensive that buying the futures contract right now.
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[…] Looking for alpha in Final Four tickets. (All About Alpha) […]
[…] Update: All About Alpha has a look at yoonew. […]
[…] http://allaboutalpha.com/blog/2008/02/17/alpha-in-final-four-tickets/ […]
[…] There will be many traditionalist who will contend this is scalping in disguise, but I disagree and think this represents a sensible development of the market and one that I hope that will soon be replicated in Europe. You can also see here the view of Allaboutalpha on the matter. […]
[…] I first heard about yoonew from a post on All About Alpha and found it to be very interesting. When I started to look for a new job saw that they were looking for someone, knew where I wanted to be. For someone whose major interests are financial markets, derivatives, exchanges, web technology, startups, as well as sports, working at Yoonew will be a dream come true. I’m really excited about it and while for quite some time I was worried it wouldn’t happen, I found exactly what I was looking for. It is also quite fitting that these products are in fact zero beta assets. […]