This unique book delves into a number of intriguing issues and addresses several pertinent questions including, should gambling markets be privatized? Is the ‘hot hand’ hypothesis real or a myth? Are the ‘many’ smarter than the ‘few’ in estimating betting odds? How are prices set in fixed odds betting markets? The book also explores the informational efficiency of betting markets and the prevalence of corruption and illegal betting in sports.

Gambling on Magic is set in Bangkok where life is more than good for Joey Balfour, ex-patriot gambling king, former TV personality, and the current owner of the mysterious and exotic Feng Shui Flower Shop in downtown Bangkok. Then ex-chief of security arrives in Bangkok to reopen an old unsolved Las Vegas casino theft. The thief has disappeared in Thailand and the conventional wisdom has it that Balfour holds the key to tracking him down. Caught in a web of deception and betrayal, Balfour discovers that other forces - more sinister and deadly - are slowly entangling him. The stakes are high, the odds are long, and for his greatest gamble, Balfour bets his own life on winning. Set in the steamy, erotic underworld of Bangkok, Gambling On Magic is a thinking person's thriller and a brilliant literary portrait of contemporary life inside Southeast Asia's most famous city. The rogue's gallery of whacky, wonderful, and original characters will stick with you long after you finish this page-turner.

This book lays down a marker as to the state of economists’ understanding of the National Football League (NFL) by assembling sophisticated, critical surveys of by leading sports economists on major topics associated with the league. The book is divided into four parts. The first three chapters in Part I provide an overview of the business of the NFL from an economist’s perspective. Part II is a collection of surveys of the economics of the NFL’s most important revenue streams, including media, attendance, and merchandising. The NFL’s labor economics is the focus of Part III, with chapters on player and coach labor markets, the draft, and contract structure. Part IV includes essays on competitive balance, gambling, economic impacts of the Super Bowl, behavioral economic issues associated with the league, and antitrust issues. This book will appeal to sports economists, sports management professionals, and policy-makers, and would be useful as a supplementary text for sports economics and management courses as well as a reference text.

Thirty-four-year-old Judy Taylor relished her simple, happy life. She had a loving husband, three young daughters, and a beautiful home. But after intestinal blood clots annihilated her digestive system, Judy was left with the certainty of starving to death in a cold Toronto hospital. The year was 1970, and most doctors still considered long-term intravenous feeding to be science fiction. As a last resort, Judy's surgeons turned to a radical young immigrant doctor who had performed groundbreaking research on artificial feeding methods for humans. Together, Judy and Dr. Khursheed Jeejeebhoy agreed that Judy's only hope was to become a human test subject. For the next twenty years, Judy and Dr. "Jeej" worked to develop and hone the medical procedures for Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN), which became the basis for modern intravenous feeding. With courage and determination, Judy raised her family and led a fulfilling life despite being the subject of experimental medicine. Lifeliner tells her inspiring true story and intimately reveals the miraculous link between science and the resilience of the human spirit.

Rock Roadie takes you on an exclusive all-access tour of more than thirty years on the road with the biggest names in rock ’n’ roll. As a roadie for some of the world's greatest music stars, James “Tappy” Wright has seen and done it all. He was there at the beginning when The Animals were formed and when they recorded their anthem, “The House of the Rising Sun.” He was there when an unknown guitarist called Jimi Hendrix played to a handful of listeners in a smoky New York club and the next day, recorded one of his biggest hits, “Hey Joe.” And as tour manager and often close confidante, Tappy has looked after superstar Tina Turner and her fiery husband, Ike, on tour, worked for Gene Vincent, helped to trap an egotistical Little Richard in an elevator, and hung up on Elvis for impersonating . . . Elvis. Packed full of conspiracy theories, truths finally told, and previously unheard anecdotes, Rock Roadie is a gripping and hilarious read that blows open the world of rock ’n’ roll in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, including an explosive revelation about the mysterious circumstances of Hendrix’s death.

In this fascinating book, New Yorker business columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea: Large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant—better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future. With boundless erudition and in delightfully clear prose, Surowiecki ranges across fields as diverse as popular culture, psychology, ant biology, behavioral economics, artificial intelligence, military history, and politics to show how this simple idea offers important lessons for how we live our lives, select our leaders, run our companies, and think about our world.