Accuracy in contests: players’ perspective

Abstract

We propose a political theory for the slow adoption of technology in sports and other contests. We investigate players’ preferences for new technology that improves contest accuracy. Modeling accuracy as the elasticity of “production” in a standard Tullock contest, we show that players may dislike accuracy if heterogeneity among them is: (1) sufficiently low; (2) moderate when the initial accuracy is low; or (3) high when the initial accuracy is high. We apply our results to the recent adoption of goal-line technology by major European soccer leagues.