As there has been some discussion about early players doing well/long runners doing badly on average, and about certain players who were "overdue" not being called up and then revealing one of the big ones in that game, I thought I would have a look if there was any pattern between length of stay and the average box amount brought to the table when they played. The results were quite surprising.

Less than 15 shows (27 players): Average box contents £34,576
15-19 shows (47 players): Average box contents £20,531
20-24 shows (147 players): Average box contents £15,521
25-29 shows (76 players): Average box contents £28,144
30+ shows (11 players): Average box contents £3,760 (no, there isn't a digit missing from that!)

(First 16 shows excluded as they did not select a player from outside the original line-up until show 17)

Now I'm not suggesting anything dodgy is going on regarding player selection, and the results are possibly not statistically significant (especially in the top and bottom categories). It may just be the random distribution of the very small number of times the £250,000 has come to the table that has skewed the figures - one was in the first 16 so excluded, and three of the remaining 8 times it came to the table it was with an early player. But it may be interesting to see how this pattern changes over time!

(Thanks to Dave Woollin for the stats by the way)

Is it the case that contestants who have done more shows gamble a bit more?