Sense of control SPOILERS
My other half baked theory regards their sense of control.
We know that none of them were ever in control of the future. Nothing they did was going to change what happened next.
But Jasper clearly believed that he was controlling things by transmitting the winners (and I agree they should have been expanding beyond dogs races or should have at least alluded to trying this).
Callie thought she was controlling things with her notes.
I think for the most part Finn didn't though he did mention something about maybe he was the cause of it all during his monologue before jasper knocked him out