Sports Contests Research Articles

Randomization and serial dependence in professional tennis matches: Do strategic considerations, player rankings and match characteristics matter?

AbstractIn many sports contests, the equilibrium requires players to randomize across repeated rounds, i.e., exhibit no temporal predictability. Such sports data present a window into the (in)efficiency of random sequence generation in a natural competitive environment, where the decision makers (tennis players) are both highly experienced and incentivized compared to laboratory studies. I resolve a long-standing debate about whether professional players’ tennis serve directions are serially independent (Hsu, Huang & Tang, 2007) or not (Walker & Wooders, 2001) using a new dataset that is two orders of magnitude larger than those studies. I examine both between- and within-player determinants of the degree of serial (in)dependence. Evidence of the existence of significant serial dependence across serves is presented, even among players ranked Number 1 in the world. Furthermore, significant heterogeneity was found with respect to the strength of serial dependence and also its sign. A novel finding is that Number 1 and Number 2 ranked players tend to under-alternate on average, whereas in line with previous findings, the lower-ranked the players, the greater their tendency to over-alternate. Within-player analyses show that high-ranked players do not condition their randomization behavior on their opponent’s ranking. However, the under-alternation of top players would be consistent with a best-response to beliefs that the population of opponents over-alternates on average. Finally, the degree of observed serial dependence is not systematically related to other match variables proxying for match difficulty, fatigue, and psychological pressure.

Advertised Incentives for Participation in Daily Fantasy Sports Contests in 2015 and 2016: Legal Classification and Consumer Implications

During the summer of 2015, daily fantasy sports (DFS) advertising in the United States became ubiquitous, with DraftKings and FanDuel embarking on an aggressive advertising campaign. One year later, those commercials all but disappeared from television and radio. In the United States, DFS operators and the industry trade association have argued that fantasy games are legally distinct from prohibited forms of sports gambling; however, several state legislators have concluded differently. In this empirical examination, we examined the advertised incentives across the first two weeks of the National Football League (NFL) season in 2015 and 2016. In order to assess whether the arguments made by industry groups that DFS is distinct from gambling is conveyed in the messages being sent to consumers by the two major DFS companies, we conducted a qualitative directed content analysis. We observed that the 2015 commercials focused on the ease of play, and DFS players’ ability to win money; whereas the 2016 commercials placed a greater emphasis on intrinsic themes. The implications of this study are meaningful because they suggest that as the regulatory framework surrounding DFS in the United States has become more certain, the major DFS companies have made a change in their advertising messaging while not fundamentally altering their most played products.

What’s Wrong with the Scrum Laws in Rugby Union? — Judgment, Truth and Refereeing

Officiating and the role of officials in sport is are crucial and often decisive factors in sports contests. Justice and desert of sport contests, in part, rely on officiating truths (performances) that arise from an appropriate admixture of epistemic (judgements) and metaphysical (actions) ingredients. This paper provides a rigorous and original philosophical analysis of the problems of obeying and applying the rules of sport. The paper focuses on a the scrum in rugby union. The scrum has become a focus of criticism and bewilderment. Elite rugby is damaged as a spectacle because too much time is wasted setting and re-setting scrums. Furthermore, trust in the fairness of games is eroded because the scrum is a ‘lottery’. In this paper, we identify two fundamental structural problems which contribute to the scrum controversy. First, we argue that officials cannot make reliable judgements about scrums because they cannot see what they need to see. Secondly, we argue that players cannot follow the laws of the scrum even if they have a strong desire to do so. Consequently, the scrum is not only potentially dangerous, but also flawed in terms of its capacity to actualise an intended part of the game.

Decision-making of English Netball Superleague umpires: Contextual and dispositional influences

ObjectivesThe decisions made by officials have a direct bearing on the outcomes of competitive sport contests. In an exploratory study, we examine the interrelationships between the decisions made by elite netball umpires, the potential contextual and environmental influences (e.g., crowd size), and the umpires' dispositional tendencies – specifically, their propensity to deliberate and ruminate on their decisions. Design/MethodFilmed footage from 60 England Netball Superleague matches was coded using performance analysis software. We measured the number of decisions made overall, and for home and away teams; league position; competition round; match quarter; and crowd size. Additionally, 10 umpires who officiated in the matches completed the Decision-Specific Reinvestment Scale (DSRS). ResultsRegression analyses predicted that as home teams' league position improved the number of decisions against away teams increased. A model comprising competition round and average league position of both teams predicted the number of decisions made in matches, but neither variable emerged as a significant predictor. The umpire analyses revealed that greater crowd size was associated with an increase in decisions against away teams. The Decision Rumination factor was strongly negatively related to the number of decisions in Quarters 1 and 3, this relationship was driven by fewer decisions against home teams by umpires who exhibited higher Rumination subscale scores. ConclusionsThese findings strengthen our understanding of contextual, environmental, and dispositional influences on umpires' decision-making behaviour. The tendency to ruminate upon decisions may explain the changes in decision behaviour in relation to the home team advantage effect.

Daily Fantasy, Tipping, and Wire Fraud

Gaming Law Review and EconomicsVol. 21, No. 1 ArticlesDaily Fantasy, Tipping, and Wire FraudJohn T. Holden, Will F. Green, and Ryan M. RodenbergJohn T. HoldenSearch for more papers by this author, Will F. GreenSearch for more papers by this author, and Ryan M. RodenbergSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:1 Feb 2017https://doi.org/10.1089/glre.2017.2114AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail View articleFiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byAdvertised Incentives for Participation in Daily Fantasy Sports Contests in 2015 and 2016: Legal Classification and Consumer ImplicationsThe Entertainment and Sports Law Journal, Vol. 15 Volume 21Issue 1Feb 2017 InformationCopyright 2017, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.To cite this article:John T. Holden, Will F. Green, and Ryan M. Rodenberg.Daily Fantasy, Tipping, and Wire Fraud.Gaming Law Review and Economics.Feb 2017.8-17.http://doi.org/10.1089/glre.2017.2114Published in Volume: 21 Issue 1: February 1, 2017Keywordsinside informationconsumer protectionfantasyfraudPDF download

Simultaneous versus sequential all-pay auctions: an experimental study

While both simultaneous and sequential contests are mechanisms used in practice such as crowdsourcing, job interviews and sports contests, few studies have directly compared their performance. By modeling contests as incomplete information all-pay auctions with linear costs, we analytically and experimentally show that the expected maximum effort is higher in simultaneous contests, in which contestants choose their effort levels independently and simultaneously, than in sequential contests, in which late entrants make their effort choices after observing all prior participants’ choices. Our experimental results also show that efficiency is higher in simultaneous contests than in sequential ones. Sequential contests’ efficiency drops significantly as the number of contestants increases. We also discover that when participants’ ability follows a power distribution, high ability players facing multiple opponents in simultaneous contests tend to under-exert effort, compared to theoretical predictions. We explain this observation using a simple model of overconfidence.

Polscy duchowni – heftlindzy a rozgrywki piłki nożnej w Konzentrationslager Dachau. Cz. I

The first German concentration camp on the land of the Third Reich was the KL Dachau, established in 1933. Starting from 1940, about 3000 clergymen of different faiths and nationalities were imprisoned there. 97% of them were the clergy of the Catholic Church among which there were 1807 Poles. KL Dachau was therefore a camp, where the largest number of Catholic clergymen was gathered during the whole World War II. After the defeat of Germans at Stalingrad at the beginning of 1943 the discipline in the concentration camp in Dachau was somewhat loosened. The prisoners were allowed to read German books and press, or to stage theatrical performances. This article deals with a hardly known phenomenon of organizing sport contests in KL Dachau, and especially football games, in which Polish clergymen also participated.

Application of entropy measures to analysis of performance in team sports

Over the last years, several researchers have been claiming that team ball sports may be viewed as dynamical systems and, thus, they should be thoroughly investigated using congruent concepts and tools. The study of variability in the sport performance domain has shown potential to contribute with valuable information about tactical behaviours related with space and time management within ever changing task constraints featuring team sports contests. Here we detail how different entropy measures have been applied to the study of performance variability to uncover the interactions underlying players and teams’ performances. With that purpose, urging issues related with information entropy, approximate entropy and sample entropy applications are discussed as a mean to enrich the state of the art in team sport performance. In sum, measurements of entropy in team sports have shown great potential to assess the uncertainty of players’ spatial distributions and dominant regions areas and of several collective team behaviours (e.g., team synchrony and team dispersion) throughout the course of a match. Entropy can also be used as a potential tool to identify expert performances and differentiate skilled from novice athletes. Future holds many other applications of this statistic in the context of performance analysis in sports, and the inclusion of new and more sophisticated entropy algorithms.

The Factors That Affect the Development of Sports Industry as an Economy

Sporun tarihine bakildiginda antik caglara kadar dayandigi gorulmektedir. Spor, zaman icerisinde yayginlasmis ve toplumun neredeyse tum kesimlerine hitap etmesi nedeniyle onemli ve vazgecilmez bir olgu haline gelmistir. Sporun yayginlasmasi ve isin icerisine paranin da girmesiyle spor buyuk bir endustri haline gelmistir. Spor endustrisinin icerisinde yer alan ogeler; katilimcilar (aktif ve pasif), eglence (spor musabakalari ve organizasyonlar vb.), urunler (mal ve hizmetler), spor tesisleri (stadyum ve salon gibi), medya, guvenlik ve yonetim sistemleri (spor kulupleri, federasyon ve siyasi yoneticiler gibi) dir. Spor endustrisi dar anlamda spor ile iliskili mal ve hizmetlerinin uretilmesi ve pazarlanmasi olarak tanimlanabilir. Daha genis manada bakildiginda ise sporun tum taraflariyla ekonomik sistemler icerisindeki yeridir. Artik spor ekonomisi ve endustrisi kendi pazarini olusturan bir sektor haline gelmistir. Spor ekonomisinin bu sekilde hizli bir sekilde buyumesinin nedenleri arasinda; yeni ve farkli sportif faaliyetlerin olusmasi, sporun gosteri oyunu haline gelmesi, insanlarin serbest vakitlerinin artmasi, insanlarin sporla ozdeslesme egilimlerinin artmasi, spora ait urun ve teknolojilerin gelismesi, sporun kuresel bir olgu haline gelmesi, spor ekonomisi ve pazarlamasi alanlarinin arttigi gorulmektedir. Avrupa futbol endustrisi cirosunun yaklasik 15 milyar Euro ve Turkiye futbol endustrisi cirosunun ise yaklasik 1 milyar oldugu dusunuldugunde spor ekonomisinin incelenmesi ve analiz edilmesi gerektigi ortaya cikmaktadir. Calismanin amaci da spor endustrisinin (ozellikle de futbol endustrisinin) buyuklugunu ve sporun bir endustri haline gelmesindeki faktorleri ortaya koymaktir. Calismada arastirma yontemlerinden icerik analizi ve literatur taramasi yontemleri kullanilmistir

Doping is Bless or Curse in Sports

The best athlete of the world in sports contests are certainly trained for extreme powers at their sports. The entire athlete utilizes all of their resources in getting the peak performance level, of being they know the sports rules, to which they must abide. Doping remains bless for athlete in primitives, while it is turned to curse at the back foot. The study examines the impacts of doping in relation to the history of doping, keeping in view the objectives, Doping is dangerous for young and vulnerable sportsman. Doping is contrary to the spirit of sports. In order to hand best results a likert type scale with three options and ten questions was constructed regarding ‘Doping Is Bless or Curse in Sports’ responded by the players and physicians of district karak.

On the Demand for Live Sport Contests: Insights From the Secondary Market for National Football League Tickets

This study examines the determinants of regular season National Football League (NFL) ticket prices on the secondary, or resale, market. Prices in the secondary market are dynamic and thus particularly useful for evaluating the demand for live NFL contests. A rich dataset is employed that contains information about all transactions conducted by a prominent ticketing site during a full NFL season and allows for a comprehensive investigation of the components of demand in this market. Included in the analysis is a first look at the demand for different seating locations within the stadium. The revealed determinants of demand for resale tickets were largely consistent with studies of the primary market; however, there are notable differences in spectators’ preferences for contest characteristics and uncertainty of outcome across the seating categories. The evidence also suggests that while hometown fans are the primary participants, visiting teams are likely active in the resale market.

A PSYCHO-PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS OF FOULS AND INTENTIONS IN CONTACT SPORTS

This paper examines the notion of fouls in sports. In the first part of the paper, we examine some actual distinctions and classifications between different kinds of fouls. In the second part we examine the significance, validity, and justification of these classifications from a normative perspective.The term ‘foul’ evokes negative connotation; some would say—negative normative connotations. Conventional wisdom suggests that typically to commit fouls is, by definition, to go against the rules or principles of the contest. Since sport contests are constitutive activities—this means that to foul is to go against the essence of the contest. In other words, to commit fouls seems not to play the game; it seems unsporting. Consider the following typical example: in a premiership match in 2014 Hull’s forward Nikica Jelavic spun around Company and had a clear path to the goal. Manchester City’s defender Vincent Kompany then held him back. Although immediately ejected from the game, it is noteworthy that Kompany was later banned from one match, rather than the usual three match suspension, because the foul was not violent or dangerous in any way. Nevertheless, the example shows that some fouls are considered unsporting even though they do not involve violent or dangerous play. If a player gets past her opponent and finds herself in front of the goal, and then her opponent hugs her forcefully from behind, then such a foul falls outside the bounds of play. It amounts to a refusal to accept the rules of the games. We explore this issue from both a philosophical and a psychological perspective. The first half of the paper shows how actual distinctions between fouls depend on awarding a normative role to intentions. In the second part, a difficulty regarding the possibility that intentions play this role is presented, and a solution is proposed. It will emerge that some fouls are a legitimate part of the game. According to the proposed view, some actions that are forbidden by the official rules of football are illegitimate when performed with intention of a certain kind. Specifically, we will argue that it is legitimate for a player to play so as to take the risk of fouling, so long as fouling is not her intention. When fouls are committed with such a state of mind, they are a part of the game. Furthermore, whereas intention is necessary for illegitimate fouls, it is not sufficient. We will argue briefly that there are also legitimate intended fouls, since some deals or exchanges—fouls in return to penalties—are considered an integral part of the game, and that this view of (some) fouls is legitimate.

Πάλη, ἔφεδρος in λαμπαδηδρομία na grobnici spektatijev v Šempetru?

Upodobitev na reliefu na levi bočni strani edikulne grobnice družine Gaja Spektatija Priskijana v Šempetru je bila doslej deležna različnih interpretacij. Po ne najbolj posrečeni razlagi z ugrabitvijo neke ženske, verjetno Helene, je bil prizor bolj prepričljivo razložen kot izsek iz sveta športnih tekmovanj. Par na sredini naj bi predstavljal nadvse priljubljeno rokoborbo v palestri (πάλη), figura na levi pa dodatnega atleta (ἔφεδρος), ki z zanimanjem sledi dvoboju in čaka, da bo prišel na vrsto, medtem ko naj bi efeb na desni predstavljal nosilca bakle (λαμπαδηδρόμος), tekmovalca v grškem agonu λαμπαδηδρομία. To razlago so ovrgle nesporne podobnosti z atiškim sarkofagom iz Tespij, ki so relief razložile kot boj Oresta in Pilada s Tavrijci.

The effect of red and blue uniforms on competitive anxiety and self-confidence in virtual sports contests

IntroductionThe present study aimed to examine the effect of blue and red uniform colors on competitive anxiety and self-confidence in virtual sports competitions. ObjectiveWe hypothesized that blue is related to higher levels of self-confidence (a feeling related to the approach motivational system), whereas red is related to higher levels of anxiety (a feeling related to the avoidance motivational system). MethodParticipants were confronted with an opponent dressed in either blue or in red. ResultsResults revealed that participants who were exposed to an opponent in blue reported a higher level of self-confidence, while those who were exposed to an opponent in red reported a higher level of cognitive anxiety, supporting the view that blue (red) is related to the approach (avoidance) motivational system. ConclusionOur findings incite a pursuit of the examination of the relationship between blue, red, competitive anxiety, and self-confidence in sport competitions.

On the Demand for Live Sport Contests: Insights from the Secondary Ticket Market for National Football League Games

On the Demand for Live Sport Contests: Insights from the Secondary Ticket Market for National Football League Games

What should you pay to host a party? An economic analysis of hosting sports mega-events

Governments all over the world put huge amounts of money into bidding for, and then hosting, sports events like Football’s World Cup or the Olympic Games. They also give money to professional sports teams and other mega-events to encourage them to locate within a particular constituency. This article examines the statistical relationship between tourism and three Football World Cups and five Olympic Games, finding very little positive effect. Given this conclusion, the article looks at why governments continue to bid for these competitions. It presents evidence that shows that these sports contests make people happy, and argues that politicians capitalize on this feel-good factor; harnessing the hubris associated with these events for political gain. The article then contends that the best way to reduce the politics associated with bidding for mega-events is to allocate them via an auction, rather than the wasteful rent-seeking methods that are currently used.

Event-Driven Holding Control for High-Frequency Transit

Transit operations are subject to disruptions caused by events. Some events cause unpredictable disruptions (e.g., signal failures in rail transit and traffic accidents along a bus route operating in mixed traffic). Other events, such as concerts or sport contests, cause foreseen disruptions. In some cases, dynamic functions of running times and demand can be used to predict and model disruptions. Past research has explored the use of operations control to respond to disruptions after service deteriorates, assuming constant running times and demand. The proposed framework enables anticipatory control strategies by dynamically modeling expected changes in running times and demand during events. A holding optimization model formulated to capture dynamics is applied to a simulated transit system experiencing disruptions induced by an unforeseen event and a foreseen event. Controlling operations with an awareness of events has little effect in the unforeseen event case but significantly improves performance in the foreseen event case. Erroneous estimates of the time an event will occur can lead to counterproductive control policies.

All-Pay Auctions with Polynomial Rewards

This paper examines a perfectly discriminating contest (all-pay auction) with two asymmetric players. We focus on unordered valuations. Valuations are endogenous (polynomial functions) and depend on the effort each player invests in the contest. The shape of the valuation function is common knowledge and differs between the contestants. Some key properties of R&D races, lobbying activity and sport contests are captured by this framework. After analyzing the unique mixed strategy equilibrium, we derive a closed form of the expected expenditure of both players. We characterize the expected expenditure by means of incomplete Beta functions.

Rules and Obligations

The existence of the obligation to follow rules in sport is widely accepted, but there are only a few studies that provide accounts that justify it. Building upon Wolff's challenge to traditional political theories, this study proposes a theory that limits the level of normativity to which participants in sport contests are bound in an effort to maximize their autonomy. Instead of constructing a unitary theory of obligations to follow sport rules, a pluralistic account is offered, one that allows for multiple sources of normativity, thus augmenting the freedom of communities to play games according to their values.

National bonding and meanings given to race and ethnicity: watching the football World Cup on Dutch TV

In this article, the author examines how the FIFA World Cup broadcast on Dutch television informs its viewers around understandings of race/ethnicity and nation. International sport contests may provide a sense of national belonging that overrides other markers of difference such as ‘race’, ethnicity or gender. As such, the football World Cup can be considered a tool for constructing a collective national identity among viewers of various racial or ethnic origins. The project provides a unique opportunity to explore this further. One of the aims is to explore if and how race and ethnicity as markers of difference may be overridden by feelings of connectivity with the Dutch national team and to what extent this differs for various ethnic audience groups. A total of 36 persons, 12 European-Dutch, 13 Surinamese-Dutch and 11 Moroccan-Dutch, were interviewed. Findings from the study suggest that various ethnic audiences experience a feeling of national bonding but at the same time engage in everyday processes of racialization/ethization. These results will be situated in an international comparative perspective during the substantive element of this article.