Sport and measurement of competition

Abstract

Sport is becoming an activity of increasing importance: over time more people participate in sport (active sport consumption), more time is spent watching sport (passive sport consumption). An important part of sport consumption is passive sport consumption where production and consumption are separate: (professional) athletes engage in a contest, and fans pay to watch the contest. An important characteristic of sport that generates this demand is relative competition: the competitiveness of a particular match or league. In this paper, we set out to measure competitive balance in three sports (soccer, tennis, and skating), and assess its development over time. As we separate variation in quality of teams or athletes from randomness of outcome, we can compare relative competition in these three sports.