Players Trade Research Articles

The financial impact of financial fair play regulation: Evidence from the English premier league

In response to the ailing financial situation of European football clubs, UEFA introduced Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulation in 2011 to guide clubs towards profitability and sustainability. In this study, we empirically test whether the break-even requirement (BER) of FFP has improved the financial performance of English Premier League (EPL) clubs exposed to the regulation. We find strong evidence that FFP has positively impacted the profitability of clubs exposed to the regulation as they are less loss-making than those not exposed to FFP. The improvement is attributed to better management of the income and expenses ratio rather than a fall in expenses. However we do not find evidence of an improvement in the clubs' sustainability. The results suggest that FFP has so far improved the profitability of EPL clubs exposed to the regulation by encouraging better financial management and business model modification for clubs. Therefore, club owners should maintain a financially prudent wage-to-revenue ratio and look to be more efficient in player trading.

Capital gains from player transfers as a value creation tool: some evidence from European listed football clubs

PurposeThis article explores the value creation process from player sales in football to understand if the related capital gains correspond to significant increases in the stock value of selling companies. In addition, it aims to detect any potential drivers for higher (or slower) abnormal stock returns.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyze all the capital gains of the Italian and Portuguese listed football companies (the only ones for which, based on their annual reports, it was possible to trace the net book value for each player sold and, consequently, if any, the related capital gain) from 2012 to 2020 and use event study analysis to calculate the abnormal returns of the football companies' stocks. Moreover, the authors use a multiple linear regression model to identify the factors affecting investors' reactions and value creation process intensity.FindingsThe results show that, on average, the capital gains from player transfers in football are positive income components and produce statistically significant higher abnormal returns. In addition, the authors identified some relevant drivers related to their intensity which could guide the choices of corporate executives regarding future disposals of the multi-year performance rights of players in the roster.Research limitations/implicationsThis study considers only Italian and Portuguese football listed companies. It would be helpful to consider some of the companies from other countries which are also outstanding from the sports perspective, but, in practice, it was not possible due to the impossibility to trace the net book value of the single footballers sold in those clubs' public financial disclosure.Practical implicationsThe value relevance of the capital gains from player trading activities should increase their importance, creating cascade effects on several activities generating value for football clubs (youth sector management, player scouting, technical improvement of the players). In addition, financial data show that the capital gains from player transfers are a basic income of European football clubs nowadays. Their executives consider these operations recurrent and continually search for more valuable transfers. Hence, it is reasonable to think that they (will) choose the players to sell considering both sports and financial aspects.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study exploring the effects of capital gains from player trading activities on professional football clubs' stock value. The results obtained are even more relevant if one considers the importance these income components have in the profit formula of professional football clubs nowadays, also because of the negative repercussions caused by the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

European Soccer Transfer Market Analysis: The Determinant Factors in Transfer Fee

This paper examines the European soccer transfer market, which, as the worlds most popular sport, has its unique rules for player trading. The transfers are the most exciting events in the soccer world each year. While most studies focus on a players market value, this paper intends to study the actual transfer amount, which represents the transaction that occurred, rather than an estimated result. In the preparation phase, this study gathered data on the top 25 transfers over the past 14 years (350 transactions in total) in an Excel spreadsheet. The study aims to determine the important substances that contribute to a players transfer fee by constructing several linear multiple regression models using statistical software R Studio. It is concluded that age and in-field performance (goal and assist) are the most related factors for the whole dataset. However, the determining factors will vary depending on a players position. Many of the factors are somewhat counterintuitive and further investigation is required.

Pandangan Orang Tua terhadap Perilaku Anak Bermain Game Online Fifa Ultimate Team

This research is motivated by the views of parents seeing their children playing online games, especially FIFA Ultimate Team because there are many online and offline tournaments held in Surabaya. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of Surabaya parents towards the FIFA Ultimate Team online game. The research method uses a qualitative approach with a theoretical model by David Krech and Richard S. Cruthfield which is divided into two factors, namely functional and structural factors. Data collection techniques were carried out by in-depth interviews. The results of this study indicate several perceptions of parents who have different perspectives on the FIFA game. Then an opinion emerged stating that in the game FIFA has a player trading system with the aim of teaching children about economics and financial management. However, there are also parents who think that trading in the FIFA game is feared to interfere with their child's academic achievement.

CryptoArcade: A Cloud Gaming System With Blockchain-Based Token Economy

Cloud gaming is a novel service provisioning technology that offloads parts of game software from terminals to powerful cloud infrastructures. However, the commercial charging model for cloud gaming is still in its infancy. In this paper, we reveal the deficiencies of existing cloud gaming pricing models and propose CryptoArcade, a token-based cloud gaming system that adopts cryptocurrency as a payment method. Using cryptocurrency, CryptoArcade provides a transparent and resource-aware pricing method, enabling a time irrelevant silent payment on the floating price to protect players' interests, which avoids the Quality of Experience (QoE) degradation caused by traditional dynamic models. While CryptoArcade can solve the problem of pricing strategies, players still face decision headaches caused by having commission overhead and pre-deposit amounts on blockchains. To better understand players' trading behaviors in this decision-making, we consider a marketplace where players trade tokens through smart contracts before gaming sessions. Considering the uncertainty of future token consumption, we use Prospect Theory (PT) in modeling and obtain the optimal solution in closed form. When comparing with the benchmark expect utility theory (EUT), we show that with the same external factors, EUT players are more likely to buy tokens than PT ones.

A Robust Stackelberg Game for Cyber-Security Investment in Networked Control Systems

We present a resource-planning game for cyber-security of networked control systems (NCSs). The NCS is assumed to be operating in closed loop using a linear state feedback <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {H}_{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -controller. A zero-sum, two-player Stackelberg game (SG) is developed between an attacker and a defender for this NCS. The attacker aims to disable communication of selected nodes and thereby render the feedback gain matrix to be sparse, leading to degradation of closed-loop performance, while the defender aims to prevent this loss by investing in the protection of targeted nodes. Both the players trade their <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {H}_{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -performance objectives for the costs of their actions. The standard backward induction (BI) method is modified to determine a cost-based Stackelberg equilibrium (CBSE) that saves the players’ costs without degrading the control performance. We analyze the dependence of a CBSE on the relative budgets of the players and on the node “importance” order. Moreover, a robust defense (RD) method is developed for the realistic case when the defender is not informed about the attacker’s resources. The proposed algorithms are validated using examples from wide-area control of electric power systems. It is demonstrated that reliable and RD is feasible unless the defender’s resources are severely limited relative to the attacker’s resources. We also show that the proposed methods are robust to time-varying model uncertainties and thus are suitable for long-term security investment in realistic NCSs. Finally, we use computationally efficient genetic algorithms (GAs) to compute the optimal strategies of the attacker and the defender in realistic large power systems.

A Random-Supply Mean Field Game Price Model

We consider a market where a finite number of players trade an asset whose supply is a stochastic process. The price formation problem consists of finding a price process that ensures that when agents act optimally to minimize their trading costs, the market clears, and supply meets demand. This problem arises in market economies, including electricity generation from renewable sources in smart grids. Our model includes noise on the supply side, which is counterbalanced on the consumption side by storing energy or reducing the demand according to a dynamic price process. By solving a constrained minimization problem, we prove that the Lagrange multiplier corresponding to the market-clearing condition defines the solution of the price formation problem. For the linear-quadratic structure, we characterize the price process of a continuum population using optimal control techniques. We include numerical schemes for the price computation in the finite and infinite games, and we illustrate the model using real data.

Unpacking The Search Process: The Role of Managerial Experience

Organizational search is central to essential management tasks, including the creation of new strategies, development of new products, and pursuit of promising opportunities. Yet models of the underlying process of search are relatively limited. We respond to this need with a conceptual model identifying search intensity (degree of response to stimulus), search decline (decline of search over time), and search duration (time to reversion to pre-stimulus levels) as defining characteristics of the search process. To study heterogeneous patterns of search, we then take a cognitive perspective on the offline and online search process and use our model to offer theory around the role of managerial experience in organizational search behavior. Our core suggestion is that more experienced managers both have high quality ex ante theories that direct search and are more willing to engage in search when the need arises, leading to specific and measurable search behavior. We demonstrate the overall model of search and validate our theory using data on 376 changes of teams’ resource configurations (player trades, injuries, and returns from injury) in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Our study contributes to the burgeoning literature on the process of search and to a theoretical perspective on the role of managerial experience in the search process.

Football players and asset manipulation: the management of football transfers in Italian Serie A

ABSTRACT Research question: We consider player trading as one of the distinctive features of football clubs’ business models and how these models have been influenced since the implementation of Financial Fair Play (FFP). Considering the Italian financial and economic context in the football sector, we investigate whether Serie A football clubs adopt earnings manipulation as a result of trading players’ economic rights. Research methods: The empirical analysis includes the football clubs competing in the Italian Serie A from 2005 to 2018. Using an unbalanced panel dataset composed of 275 club-year observations (38 different clubs), our estimations are run by using fixed effects OLS models. Clubs’ net capital income from sales of football players is used as a proxy of earning manipulation. We control for clubs’ football performance, size and reputation. Results: and Findings: By applying Bartov’s model based on asset sales, our results confirm the adoption of asset manipulation behaviours in the football industry, wherein players’ economic rights sales are a preponderant financial item affecting economic performance. Specifically, net income from trading players is significant and positively linked with Serie A clubs’ profitability, while leverage is significant after the introduction of FFP and especially for the most prominent Serie A clubs. Implications: Our results confirm that Italian Serie A has been chronically dependent on player trading to maintain their financial sustainability. UEFA’s regulations could be assessed and modified to enable them to prevent and reveal the real activities and dynamics behind the player transfer market (profit smoothing behaviours).

On the connection between real-world circumstances and online player behaviour: The case of EVE Online

Games involving virtual worlds are popular in several segments of the population and societies. The online environment facilitates that players from different countries interact in a common virtual world. Virtual worlds involving social and economic interactions are particularly useful to test social and economic theories. Using data from EVE Online, a massive online multi-player game simulating a fantasy galaxy, we analyse the relation between the real-world context in which players live and their in-game behaviour at the country level. We find that in-game aggressiveness to non-player characters is positively related to real-world levels of aggressiveness as measured by the Global Peace Index and the Global Terrorist Index at the country level. The opposite is true for in-game aggressiveness towards other players, which seems to work as a safety valve for real-world player aggressiveness. The ability to make in-game friends is also positively related to real-world levels of aggressiveness in much the same way. In-game trading behaviour is dependent on the macro-economic environment where players live. The unemployment rate and exchange rate make players trade more efficiently and cautiously in-game. Overall, we find evidence that the real-world environment affects in-game behaviour, suggesting that virtual worlds can be used to experiment and test social and economic theories, and to infer real-world behaviour at the country level.

The impact of UEFA financial fair play on player expenditures, sporting success and financial performance: evidence from the Italian top league

ABSTRACT Research question: In this study we empirically test the following hypotheses regarding the impact of financial fair play (FFP) on Italian first-division clubs: 1) FFP works as a governance mechanism moderating the relation between internal governance mechanisms and wage expenditures, 2) FFP is altering the relative importance of player expenditures as drivers of sporting performance, and 3) FFP is shifting the business model of Italian clubs leading to a more efficient decision-making on player transfers. Research methods: Using 165 club-year observations from 2007 to 2017, we jointly model the determinants of wage expenditures, sporting results and financial performance via a simultaneous equation approach. The impact of FFP is estimated by interacting a dummy variable for FFP with the key explanatory variables of each model. Results and findings: Empirical results show that FFP has 1) a negative effect on the relation between wages and sporting results, 2) a positive effect on the relation between net transfer fees and sporting results, and 3) a positive effect on the relation between gains on player trading and financial performance. Implications: Overall results suggest that FFP is altering the business model of Italian clubs from an investment-focused (wage spending) to a more efficiency-driven one that is geared to make gains from player trading. Accordingly, club managers should commit to creating sustainable cycles of player transfers in order to thrive under the new regulatory environment. As for regulators, this study supports the notion that FFP restores efficient managerial incentives in football businesses, reinforcing the case for a full implementation of the regulation.

Oral and Maxillofacial Injuries in American Major Professional Sports Leagues during the 2017-2018 Season

Major professional sports leagues in America and Canada include the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), and National Hockey League (NHL). Injuries to players can result in missed games1, impaired athletic performance, psychological effects2, a decline in player trade value, and lost revenue. The purpose of this study was to characterize oral and maxillofacial injuries in professional athletes of 4 major sports leagues.

A Risk-Based Decision Framework for the Distribution Company in Mutual Interaction With the Wholesale Day-Ahead Market and Microgrids

One of the emergent prospects for active distribution networks ( DN ) is to establish new roles to the distribution company ( DISCO ). The DISCO can act as an aggregator of the resources existing in the DN , also when parts of the network are structured and managed as microgrids ( MG s). The new roles of the DISCO may open the participation of the DISCO as a player trading energy in the wholesale markets, as well as in local energy markets. In this paper, the decision making aspects involving the DISCO are addressed by proposing a bilevel optimization approach in which the DISCO problem is modeled as the upper-level problem and the MG s problems and day-ahead wholesale market clearing process are modeled as the lower-level problems. To include the uncertainty of renewable energy sources, a risk-based two-stage stochastic problem is formulated, in which the DISCO 's risk aversion is modeled by using the conditional value at risk. The resulting nonlinear bilevel model is transformed into a linear single-level one by applying the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions and the duality theory. The effectiveness of the model is shown in the application to the IEEE 33-bus DN connected to the IEEE RTS 24-bus power system.

Exploring the Effect of Attachment Styles and Winning or Losing a Status Contest on Testosterone Levels.

A person’s ability to form relationships and seek and attain social status affects their chances of survival. We study how anxious and avoidant-attachment styles and subsequent winning or losing affects the testosterone (T) levels of team members playing two status contests. The first is a management game played by teams striving to earn the most profits. Winners and losers emerge due to the cognitive endeavor of the players, which provokes intense status dynamics. Avoidant-attached winners do not show higher T levels whereas anxious-attached winners do. The second is an economic game which is rigged and favors some teams to become richer than others; teams have the option though to trade with each other and reduce the self-perpetuating rich-poor dynamics embedded in the game. Besides attachment styles, we here also explore how authentic pride as a self-conscious emotion affects team members’ T levels as players trade with others to create more fairness. As in the first status contest, players’ T levels are not significantly affected by their avoidant attachment style, neither as a main effect nor in interaction with winning or losing the game. However, similar to the first game, players’ anxious attachment style affects their T levels: anxious-attached players generate significantly higher T levels when winning the game, but only when experiencing high authentic pride during the game. In short, the moderating effects of attachment style on winners’ T levels are partly replicated in both status games which allows us to better understand the functioning of working models of attachment styles during and after status contests and gives us a better understanding of working models of attachment styles in general.

Synergistic Information Processing Encrypts Strategic Reasoning in Poker.

There is a tendency in decision-making research to treat uncertainty only as a problem to be overcome. But it is also a feature that can be leveraged, particularly in social interaction. Comparing the behavior of profitable and unprofitable poker players, we reveal a strategic use of information processing that keeps decision makers unpredictable. To win at poker, a player must exploit public signals from others. But using public inputs makes it easier for an observer to reconstruct that player's strategy and predict his or her behavior. How should players trade off between exploiting profitable opportunities and remaining unexploitable themselves? Using a recent multivariate approach to information theoretic data analysis and 1.75 million hands of online two-player No-Limit Texas Hold'em, we find that the important difference between winning and losing players is not in the amount of information they process, but how they process it. In particular, winning players are better at integrative information processing-creating new information from the interaction between their cards and their opponents' signals. We argue that integrative information processing does not just produce better decisions, it makes decision-making harder for others to reverse engineer, as an expert poker player's cards act like the private key in public-key cryptography. Poker players encrypt their reasoning with the way they process information. The encryption function of integrative information processing makes it possible for players to exploit others while remaining unexploitable. By recognizing the act of information processing as a strategic behavior in its own right, we offer a detailed account of how experts use endemic uncertainty to conceal their intentions in high-stakes competitive environments, and we highlight new opportunities between cognitive science, information theory, and game theory.

Horizontal competition and interorganizational exchange partner selection: An analysis of Major League Baseball player trades

This study examines the influence of horizontal competition on interorganizational exchange. Interorganizational competition is a multidimensional construct that can influence exchange in multiple, sometimes countervailing ways. With an analysis of Major League Baseball player trades, we examine the influences of three components of competition—goal conflict, rivalry, and competitive interaction—on interorganizational exchange partner selection. We find that goal conflict reduces the hazard rate of exchange between organizations, but competitive interaction increases it. Moreover, we find evidence that prior exchange moderates the competition–exchange relationship by reducing the perceived risks and information benefits of exchange with a competitor. We do not find evidence that interorganizational rivalry shapes subsequent exchange behavior.

Universal Growth in Production Economies

We study a simple variant of the von Neumann model of an expanding economy, in which multiple producers produce goods according to their production function. The players trade their goods at the market and then use the bundles acquired as inputs for the production in the next round. We show that a simple decentralized dynamic, where players update their bids proportionally to how useful the investments were in the past round, leads to growth of the economy in the long term (whenever growth is possible) but also creates unbounded inequality, i.e. very rich and very poor players emerge. We analyze several other phenomena, such as how the relation of a player with others influences its development and the Gini index of the system.

Football clubs’ profitability after the Financial Fair Play regulation: evidence from Italy

PurposeIn 2009, the Union of European Football Associations approved the Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations. These regulations refer to the requirements of transparency and financial conditions for football clubs participating in European competitions. The purpose of this paper is to combine the managerial and the economic points-of-view in order to understand if Italian football clubs are ready to comply with the new FFP rules.Design/methodology/approachIn the analysis, the authors focus on the main Italian football league, Serie A. Using business model analysis, the authors determine what the main profit determinants of football associations are, through panel data for 15 clubs from 2011-2013. The authors then try to match the statistical and managerial approach.FindingsThe results show that the key contributing factors to profits are on the costs side. In particular, the most relevant expenses are player wages. The core revenue for clubs comes from the net profit from player trading, while other income, such as TV rights, commercial and match-day proceeds, have no statistical significance for profit formation.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of the analysis is that the survey regarded only on Italian Championship. So it is deeply influenced by the competitive structure of the Italian league that is different from that of other European leagues. Therefore, the authors think that the future developments of this work could be the examination of another European Championship, for example, English Premier League, and the compared analysis of Italian league and other European one.Practical implicationsThere is a close-link between costs and profitability, and especially between expenditure on players and the ability to close the financial year with a profit. Clubs must address the issue of player wages in order to follow a path of economic recovery towards profitability.Originality/valueIn the work the authors put together managerial point of view and economical one, in order to understand how FFP can impact on profitability of football clubs. The authors use an empirical econometrics model to test the hypothesis about business model of Italian Clubs.

Acceptance of the virtual item auctioning system in online games: The role of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and trust

AbstractThe virtual item auctioning system (VIAS) has economic potential as millions of online players trade their virtual items in an auction‐based environment. However, little empirical research has been conducted about understanding the factors affecting the decision to use the VIAS in online games. To address this gap, the current study uses the technology acceptance model (TAM) to explore the effects of extrinsic motivation‐perceived usefulness, intrinsic motivation‐flow, and trust on the decision to use the VIAS in online games. Three hundred and twenty‐eight surveys were gathered from the users of VIAS in online games. The research model was tested with the structural equation modeling technique, using AMOS 20. The results showed that intrinsic motivation is more important than extrinsic motivation in explaining the use of the VIAS. Furthermore, trust is a strong predictor of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. We conclude the study with the discussion of the findings, managerial implications, and suggestions for future research. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Global players trade chemical businesses

Global players trade chemical businesses