How Big Is the Prize Money Gap? - Analysis of Prize Money in 2016 Grand Slam Tournaments

Martin Svoboda,Zuzana Rakovská

doi:10.5817/fai2017-1-3

Abstract

Since 2007 all Grand Slam tournaments have offered equal prize money for male and female tennis players. Although men and women are paid equally in Grand Slams they still play a different number of best-of sets – men play best-of-five set matches while women play best-of-three set matches. Those two competing circumstances created a financial gap in prize money paid to women and men for the unit of effort in a tennis play – for a game. The present paper estimates this financial gap for 2016 Grand Slam tournaments. Moreover, it demonstrates the nominal magnitude of this gap and its effect on year-to-year increasing prize money that are paid to winners. The results showed that women on average obtained 60% more prize money for a game played than men in all four 2016 Grand Slams.

Highlights

Tennis is a ball game that can be played by both men and women
Column bars placed below the lines show the differences between the amount of games played by men and women at each level of payment structure averaged across four Grand Slams
Men and women are paid they still play a different number of best-of sets in Grand Slams – men play best-of-five sets while women playing best-of-three sets

Summary

Introduction

Tennis is a ball game that can be played by both men and women. Tennis is one of the most popular sports in the world. It is estimated that more than 1 billion people play or watch tennis regularly, mostly in wealthier countries around the world. The current form of tennis originated in 1874 when the Englishman Walter Clopton Wingfield patented tennis rules (ITHF, 2016). The International Tennis Federation ILTF (International Lawn Tennis Federation) was founded in 1913 and since 1977 has held the name ITF (International Tennis Federation). Tennis was a part of the modern Olympic Games since their inception until 1924 when it was dropped from the program due to disagreements between the ILTF and the International Olympic Committee about amateurs’ participation. In 1988 tennis was again included as an Olympic discipline

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