TY - JOUR

T1 - Speculation on Racing Odds in India

AU - Puri, Stine Simonsen

PY - 2020/2/14

Y1 - 2020/2/14

N2 - Horse racing has existed in India since the British established race clubs across the continent as places for socializing and legal gambling. Today, betting on horses in Delhi is a form of speculation, where bettors not only calculate probabilities of horses, but try to figure out insider knowledge of rigged races by observing the odds. This becomes particularly evident when betting odds on a particular horse suddenly change with an accelerating speed because people start betting for the same horse – a phenomenon, in finance, known as ‘herding’. Inspired by Clifford Geertz’ study of the connection between betting odds and deep play, the study identifies deeper causes of market volatility, beyond market strategies and crowd psychology, in the cosmology of uncertainty of the society in which the speculative market is located.

AB - Horse racing has existed in India since the British established race clubs across the continent as places for socializing and legal gambling. Today, betting on horses in Delhi is a form of speculation, where bettors not only calculate probabilities of horses, but try to figure out insider knowledge of rigged races by observing the odds. This becomes particularly evident when betting odds on a particular horse suddenly change with an accelerating speed because people start betting for the same horse – a phenomenon, in finance, known as ‘herding’. Inspired by Clifford Geertz’ study of the connection between betting odds and deep play, the study identifies deeper causes of market volatility, beyond market strategies and crowd psychology, in the cosmology of uncertainty of the society in which the speculative market is located.

U2 - 10.1080/03085147.2020.1712856

DO - 10.1080/03085147.2020.1712856

M3 - Journal article

VL - 49

SP - 170

EP - 186

JO - Economy and Society

JF - Economy and Society

SN - 0308-5147

IS - 1

ER -