Efficiency in the market for listed European football clubs

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to test the weak-form efficiency of listed European football stocks in the sample period 2012–2020.Design/methodology/approachThree powerful tests for randomness are performed, that is, autocorrelation of returns analysis via the Ljung and Box (1978) test, variance ratio test by Lo and MacKinlay (1988) and runs test (Wald and Wolfowitz, 1940).FindingsResults are mixed. Autocorrelation analysis and variance ratio test reject the random walk hypothesis and are, therefore, in line with the findings of Ferreira et al. (2017). In contrast, the runs test only leads to rejection of the random walk hypothesis for five out of 20 football stocks. Interestingly, this applies to shares with the lowest trading volume.Practical implicationsThe market for stakes in football clubs can be expected to continue to grow in the future. Thus, the issue whether the price signals derived from listed football clubs are reliable inputs when negotiating the price for a football club stake in a private transaction is of increasing importance.Originality/valueThis study complements, and partly challenges, the results of Ferreira et al. (2017), the only other study in this field, by applying other methods and analyzing a more recent sample period.