Competitive Imbalance Research Articles

Talent Allocation in European Football Leagues: Why Competitive Imbalance May be optimal?

Abstract Professional sports are part of the entertainment industry; as such, its business is developed based on the perceived interest in sporting events, which in turn depends on features like: the (i) degree of competitive balance that determines the uncertainty of the outcome; the (ii) concentration of gifted players in a team, whose interaction of talents on the field enhances the quality of the ‘product joint’ that is a sporting event; the (iii) joint aggregate quality of rival teams; the (iv) appeal of rivalries associated with fans’ feelings of empathy and loyalty; etc. This paper focusses on the first three points by modelling the success of team-sport competitions as the result of the overall quality, which encompasses more than the mere sum of individual talents. Sport economists and practitioners generally acknowledge that competitive balance must be fostered to protect uncertainty about the outcome and thus achieve greater interest in sport competitions by fans and the media. In this paper, we argue that certain degree of imbalance in allocation of talent between teams may be preferable – rather than a perfect competitive balance – to broaden the interest of fans on the sport events and, thus, maximise economic outcomes. The paper also examines the discrepancies across the main European football leagues in this regard.

Does Draft Currency Promote Competitive Balance? An Empirical Investigation of the National Football League 2002–2021

In the National Football League (NFL) annual draft, teams take turns selecting entering players. The draft is a market mechanism designed to promote competitive balance as the NFL assigns draft positions to teams in reverse order relative to last season's performance. Teams frequently trade draft picks for other picks and/or players. We use several market valuations of draft picks to define original draft currency as the total value of draft picks available before any trades and final draft currency as the total value of picks used after all trades. For the 2002–2021 period, we find that original draft currency does not affect the probability of reaching the playoffs, but final draft currency does. Usage of outdated market valuations of draft picks by most teams can help explain how the best team has used draft-pick trades to remain among the strongest teams over two decades thereby perpetuating competitive imbalance.

The democratization of tourism distribution: a Horizon 2050 paper

Purpose Emphasizing the critical role of technology-enabled distribution in tourism, this study, a viewpoint, aims to highlight the potential of democratized technologies in readdressing the competitive imbalance between small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMTEs) and their larger peers in today’s online marketplace. By enhancing competitiveness and performance, democratized technologies can strengthen the resilience, sustainability and competitive position of the SMTEs on which tourism depends, helping to support the Horizon 2050 agenda and UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Design/methodology/approach Examining the development of online and electronic distribution in tourism, the viewpoint identifies the key challenges to the successful use of technology-based distribution systems by SMTEs, as well as highlights the trend toward democratized technologies as a potential solution to help improve technology take-up and performance. Findings With no/low initial capital or operating costs, and little need for technical expertise, democratized technologies have the potential to overcome two of the three key challenges limiting the successful adoption and use of distribution technologies by SMTES. The key blockage remains one of managerial awareness and acceptability. With informal organization structures, little managerial or technical training and an ingrained reluctance to change, SMTE managers remain unfamiliar of the possibilities offered by this developing trend. While this challenge could be addressed by awareness building and training, in the longer run, it is likely that more substantial progress will arise from generational change in SMTE management, with digitally native successors more likely to exploit this development to improve competitiveness and performance. Originality/value Emphasizing the pivotal role that democratized technology can potentially play in redressing the competitive imbalance between SMTEs and their larger peers in the distribution space, this viewpoint serves as a call for action for tourism businesses to re-examine their approach to technology adoption and leverage democratized technologies to address current deficiencies in their distribution approach, helping to improve competitiveness and performance, thus supporting the Horizon 2050 initiative and furthering the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Domestic Competitive Imbalance as the “Price” of Surprise in the Champions League

The opinions regarding the impact of the domestic league's competitive balance (CB) on continental club competition sporting success are divided. Through the data of the last 18 seasons (2004/05–2021/22) and 576 games, we have examined whether the teams from a more balanced domestic league can achieve more unexpected results in the Champions League group stage. The current study aims to contribute to previously published literature by applying the market value-based surprise index. The results of panel logistic regression models suggest that a lower domestic league's CB in a given season can support teams to overperform in the international field in the same season.

Advancing search engine studies: The evolution of Google critique and intervention

In this piece, which frames the special issue, “The State of Google Critique and Intervention,” we provide an overview of research focusing on Google as an object of critical study, fleshing out the European interventions that actively attempt to address its dominance. The article begins by mapping out key areas of articulating a Google critique, from the initial focus on ranking and profiling to the subsequent scrutiny of user exploitation and competitive imbalance. As such, it situates the contributions to this special issue concerning search engine bias and discrimination, the ethics of Google Autocomplete, Google's content moderation, the commodification of engine audiences and the political economy of technical systems in a broader history of Google criticism. It then proceeds to contextualize the European developments that put forward alternatives and draws attention to legislative efforts to curb the influence of big tech. We conclude by identifying a few avenues for continued critical study, such as Google's infrastructural bundling of generative artificial intelligence with existing products, to emphasize the importance of intervention in the future.

The evolution of seeding systems and the impact of imbalanced groups in FIFA Men’s World Cup tournaments 1954–2022

Abstract The FIFA Men’s World Cup tournament is the most popular sporting event in the world. Scholars have identified several flaws in the organization of the World Cup causing competitive imbalance. We empirically assess competitive imbalance between groups for the World Cup tournaments from 1954 through 2022. We average the Elo ratings of a team’s opponents in the group stage to calculate their group opponents rating. In every World Cup, the range in group opponents rating exceeds 118 Elo rating points – the difference between an average participant and an average semifinalist. Using logistic regression, we find that for an average participant in a 32-team World Cup, an increase in group opponents rating of only 88 Elo rating points can reduce the probability of reaching the quarterfinal from 0.174 to 0.081, which is a decrease of more than 50 %. None of the five seeding systems used by FIFA during 1954–2022 lessened the negative impact of group opponents rating on the probability of reaching the quarterfinal. We close with seven policy recommendations to restore competitive balance at the World Cup.

Ultra-low-loss broadband multiport optical splitters.

A major challenge in inverse design of optical splitters is to efficiently reach platform nonspecific designs constrained to multiple functional requirements: arbitrary splitting ratio, low insertion loss, broad bandwidth and small footprint. While the traditional designs fail to fulfill all these requirements, the more successful nanophotonic inverse designs require substantial time and energy resources per device. Here, we present an efficient inverse design algorithm that provides universal designs of splitters compliant with all above constraints. To demonstrate the capabilities of our method, we design splitters with various splitting ratios and fabricate 1 × N power splitters in a borosilicate platform by direct laser writing. The splitters show zero loss within the experimental error, competitive imbalance of <0.5 dB and broad bandwidth in the range 20 - 60 nm around 640 nm. Remarkably, the splitters can be tuned to achieve different splitting ratios. We further demonstrate scaling of the splitter footprint and apply the universal design to silicon nitride and silicon-on-insulator platforms to achieve 1 × 5 splitters with the footprints as small as 3.3 µm × 8 µm and 2.5 µm × 10.3 µm, respectively. Owing to the universality and speed of the design algorithm (several minutes on a standard PC) our approach renders 100 greater throughput than nanophotonic inverse design.

Talent concentration and competitive imbalance in European soccer.

While most of the available literature on competitive balance analyses its impact on ticket sales and TV audiences, less empirical research is available that examines the observable variation in competitive balance across leagues and over time. This paper studies the concentration of player talent and end-of-season league points to empirically assess whether leagues with a more equal distribution of player talent produce a more balanced competition than leagues with less equal distribution. The longitudinal data we use to estimate our empirical model comes from professional soccer leagues in twelve Western European countries from 2005/06 thru 2020/21, yielding 5,299 club-season observations. Our empirical analysis indicates that talent concentration in a league significantly and positively impacts points concentration in that league. However, in specifications controlling for year, country, and division, this impact is only weakly significant or insignificant, suggesting that talent concentration does not significantly affect competitive balance in that league. Additionally, our findings demonstrate that the relationship between talent and points concentration does not vary considerably across the European leagues or over time. Our results suggest that repeated participation in the UEFA Champions League, with its considerable monetary returns by (more or less) the same subset of teams, does not increase competitive imbalance in the respective national league. Thus, with relatively few additional regulatory interventions, the promotion and relegation system in the open European soccer leagues seems effective in ensuring a balanced competition.

A product thirty years in the making: the Champions League, organisational legitimacy, and the disenfranchisement of Europe’s football supporters

ABSTRACT The UEFA Champions League (CL) has tremendously shaped the power alignments in Europe’s top league since its renewed invocation in 1992. Acting both as a counter-balance but also as an amplifier to the competitive imbalance imposed by the English Premier League, UEFA has sought to maintain a link to football supporters in Europe and branding and streamlining one of football’s top products at the same time. This paper embeds these parallel and often ambivalent aspirations in a framework of organisational input and output legitimacy claiming that the CL can serve as a prime example to depict UEFA’s strategy to maintaining the status quo of European football.

Small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises and smart tourism: Tourism Agenda 2030 perspective article

Diseño/metodología/enfoque (límite 100 palabras)Revisando la literatura sobre el uso de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC) en turismo, este artículo desarrolla un caso de la implantación del Turismo Inteligente en la mejora de la competitividad de las Pequeñas y Medianas Empresas (PYMES).Objetivo (límite 100 palabras)Al destacar el importante papel de las TIC en el reequilibrio competitivo entre las PYMES turísticas y las grandes empresas, este artículo sirve de llamada a la acción a los gobiernos, las organizaciones regionales de turismo y otras partes interesadas a nivel político para facilitar una difusión más ágil del turismo inteligente, contribuyendo a apoyar la agenda turística 2030 y los múltiples Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible de la ONU.Resultados (límite 100 palabras)Sin un enfoque colaborativo, es improbable que las PYMES turísticas utilicen eficazmente las tecnologías emergentes para competir con sus homólogas más grandes y las plataformas en línea. Si se adopta un enfoque de turismo inteligente, los efectos de red entre las partes interesadas pueden ganar terreno, lo que permite a las PYMES competir con mayor eficacia y a los destinos promover la inclusividad y el crecimiento económico sostenible.Originalidad/valor (límite 100 palabras)Al destacar el papel fundamental que pueden desempeñar las TIC en general y el turismo inteligente en particular a la hora de abordar el desequilibrio competitivo entre las PYME y las grandes empresas, este trabajo sirve de llamamiento a la acción para que los gobiernos, las organizaciones regionales de turismo y otras partes interesadas a nivel político aceleren la adopción de los principios del turismo inteligente como medio de apoyar la Agenda de Turismo 2030 y promover los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible de las Naciones Unidas.

A Dynamic Analysis of Equal Revenue Sharing and Endogenous Salary Caps in the N-Team Leagues

This article studies the combined effect of equal revenue sharing and endogenous salary caps in a dynamical setting. It is shown that (i) a combination of equal revenue sharing and salary caps cannot eliminate competitive imbalance in the league; (ii) the share of player salaries has no impact on the distribution of talent among teams; (iii) under equal revenue sharing, the introduction of salary restrictions is not meant to prevent player salaries from rising, but to prevent them from falling; and (iv) under equal revenue sharing and salary caps, the reverse-order draft is incompatible with talent investment incentives of teams.

Quantifying the impact of imbalanced groups in FIFA Women’s World Cup tournaments 1991–2019

Abstract The FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament consists of a group stage and a knockout stage. We identify several issues that create competitive imbalance in the group stage. We use match data from all Women’s World Cup tournaments from 1991 through 2019 to empirically assess competitive imbalance across groups in each World Cup. Using least squares, we determine ratings for all teams. For each team, we average the ratings of the opponents in the group to calculate group opponents rating. We find that the range in group opponents rating varies between 2.5 and 4.5 goals indicating substantial competitive imbalance. We use logistic regression to quantify the impact of imbalance on the probability of success in the Women’s World Cup. Specifically, our estimates show that one goal less in group opponents rating can increase the probability of reaching the quarterfinal by 33%. We discuss several policy recommendations to reduce competitive imbalance at the Women’s World Cup.

Spatial Attendance Spillover in Football Leagues

We analyse the spatial attendance spillover applying spatial panel-data models with the Italian Football League data from 2001/2002 to 2016/2017. Our Quasi-Maximum Likelihood empirical results suggest that no significant spatial interaction was evident in earlier seasons (2001–2013), but modest spatial spillover was in play from 2013 to 2016. In addition, cross-quality spillover exists only locally in the same cities. We use numerical simulations to examine the potential impact of such spillover on attendance distribution and then competitive balance; spillover implies an interaction between the two exclusive markets that are the principal sources of competitive imbalance. Our numerical simulations suggest that spatial spillover may create attendance variations across member teams. The final outcome depends on the spillover sign, the network structure, and the market size distribution. Combining the empirical results with numerical simulations, we find that a recent, slightly positive spillover may modestly reduce attendance disparity.

Mycorrhizal fungi reduce fitness differences, but coexistence is determined by differences in intrinsic plant mycorrhizal responsiveness

AbstractPlant–arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) associations can mediate soil resources among competing plants to influence plant resource capture and fitness, making AMF a potential agent of plant coexistence. We assessed plant coexistence, via niche and fitness differences, using six plant species varying in their mycorrhizal status. We grew the species in 15 competitive pairs with or without AMF. Effects of AMF on coexistence were determined by parametrizing pair-wise Lotka–Volterra plant competition models. Responses of the six plant species to AMF were determined by comparing the shoot biomass of single plants grown in the absence of any competition with AMF to the shoot biomass without AMF. The inoculation with AMF reduced the fitness differences between competitors, but the degree of AMF-mediated coexistence depended on the identity of the competing plant species. A greater AMF response difference between competing plant species reduced niche overlap and increased coexistence. These results show that while AMF generally reduce fitness differences, the equalizing effect of AMF is not always strong enough to overcome a competitive imbalance due to niche overlap and thus does not always lead to coexistence. Instead, it is the intrinsic growth response of different plant species to AMF, which can predict reduced niche overlap that in turn leads to coexistence. This implies that mycorrhizal dependence is a plant strategy to reduce niche overlap with competitors, thus allowing for greater coexistence.

Competition for pollinators destabilizes plant coexistence.

Mounting concern over the global decline of pollinators has fuelled calls for investigating their role in maintaining plant diversity1,2. Theory predicts that competition for pollinators can stabilize interactions between plant species by providing opportunities for niche differentiation3, while at the same time can drive competitive imbalances that favour exclusion4. Here we empirically tested these contrasting effects by manipulating competition for pollinators in a way that predicts its long-term implications for plant coexistence. We subjected annual plant individuals situated across experimentally imposed gradients in neighbour density to either ambient insect pollination or a pollen supplementation treatment alleviating competition for pollinators. The vital rates of these individuals informed plant population dynamic models predicting the key theoretical metrics of species coexistence. Competition for pollinators generally destabilized the interactions between plant species, reducing the proportion of pairs expected to coexist. Interactions with pollinators also influenced the competitive imbalances between plant species, effects that are expected to strengthen with pollinator decline, potentially disrupting plant coexistence. Indeed, results from an experiment simulating pollinator decline showed that plant species experiencing greater reductions in floral visitation also suffered greater declines in population growth rate. Our results reveal that competition for pollinators may weaken plant coexistence by destabilizing interactions and contributing to competitive imbalances, information critical for interpreting the impacts of pollinator decline.

Treatment Effect of Long-Term Antipsychotics on Default-Mode Network Dysfunction in Drug-Naïve Patients With First-Episode Schizophrenia: A Longitudinal Study.

Background: The maintenance of antipsychotic treatment is an efficient way to prevent the relapse of schizophrenia (SCZ). Previous studies have identified beneficial effects of antipsychotics on brain structural and functional abnormalities during mostly the acute phase in SCZ, but seldom is known about the effects of long-term antipsychotics on the brain. The present study focused on the long-term antipsychotic effect on the default mode network (DMN) dysfunction in SCZ. Methods: A longitudinal study of the functional connectivity (FC) of 11 DMN subdivisions was conducted in 86 drug-naive first-episode patients with SCZ at the baseline and after a long-term atypical antipsychotic treatment (more than 6 months) based on the resting-state functional magnetic resonance image. In total, 52 patients completed the follow-up of clinical and neuroimaging investigations. Results: At the baseline, relative to healthy controls, altered connectivities within the DMN and between the DMN and the external attention system (EAS) were observed in patients. After treatment, along with significant relief of symptoms, most FC alterations between the DMN and the EAS at the baseline were improved after treatment, although the rehabilitation of FC within the DMN was only observed at the link between the posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus. Greater reductions in negative and positive symptoms were both related to the changes of DMN-EAS FC in patients. Conclusion: Our findings provide evidence that maintenance antipsychotics on SCZ is beneficial for the improvement of DMN-EAS competitive imbalance, which may partly contribute to the efficient relapse prevention of this severe mental disorder.

FRAND for Dominant Digital Platforms: Enhancing the Way Essential Inputs are Accessed, Transferred and Shared

Abstract Dominant digital platforms (DDPs) are dynamic and can control the market with the aid of features such as network externalities, economies of scale and scope and the accumulation of inputs including data and algorithms. In this competitive imbalance, new companies face a greater challenge to enter the market, which in turn reinforces concentration. Different policy proposals have been discussed to address these issues and to enhance access to as well as transfer and sharing of essential inputs between DDPs and other market players. One proposal has been to apply the fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) model, traditionally used in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in the context of DDPs. Considering the evolving nature of digital markets and the peculiarities of DDPs, the paper analyses the role of FRAND in providing access to crucial data and other essential inputs among digital market players.

Relationship Between Player Value and Competitive Balance Under the Assumption of Oligopoly

Abstract: The evolution of competitive balance and its impact on demand is the focus in the field of sports economics. The results of previous studies examining the relationship between competitive balance (CB) and attendance, as well as the direction of the relationship between financial inequality and CB, are not clear. Through panel data of the top five European football leagues, we examine whether there is a causal relationship between the concentration of club wealth and CB. Using different CB measures and the player value concentration as a proxy for wealth concentration, we found that wealth concentration has an impact on competitive imbalance. A partial adjustment model was able to detect the causal relationship even though CB refers to a moment while the wealth concentration refers to a period. This study helps to understand why previous research has found conflicting results on the relationship between financial inequality and competitive balance.

On skill and chance in sport

AbstractThis work studies outcome uncertainty and competitive balance from a broad perspective. It considers four sports with varying scoring rates, from soccer with typically three goals per match to netball with one hundred goals per match. Within a general modelling framework for a two-competitor contest, we argue that outcome uncertainty, the extent to which the outcome of a contest is unpredictable, depends on scoring rate, on strength variation and on score dependence. Score dependence is essentially the tendency for scores to alternate because possession alternates and possession is advantageous. We regard competitive balance as lack of variation in strength or skill, so that when strength variation is large competitive balance is low and vice versa. Thus, we argue that the outcome of a contest depends on skill, scoring rate, score dependence and chance. This description of outcome is useful because it informs policy-making in sport about the design of scoring systems and the control of competitive imbalance. Broadly, we find that: soccer is relatively competitively unbalanced but outcomes are uncertain because the scoring rate is low; the Australian football league is competitively balanced and so outcomes are uncertain in spite of the high scoring rate in this sport; international rugby matches are relatively neither competitive nor uncertain so that little is left to chance; and netball matches have uncertain outcomes because scores are positively dependent.

Competitive Balance and the Away Goals Rule During Extra Time

The Union of European Football Associations is currently reviewing the away goals rule during extra time in the knockout rounds of the Champions League. We model extra time as a two-stage contest. Assuming a home-field advantage we analyze the effect of the away goals rule on the competitive balance between teams. Our analysis suggests that the away goals rule levels the competitive imbalance introduced by the home-field advantage in the quarter and semi-finals and that in the round of 16 weaker teams should play first home and then away so that they benefit from the away goals rule during extra time.