Competitive Balance and Income Redistribution in Team Sports

This paper starts with the observation that in most individualistic sports (e.g. golf, tennis, boxing) rewards are highly dependent on performance, while in most team sports direct rewards are almost independent of performance. This paper takes the perspective of Contest (Tournament) Theory and considers the incentive properties of revenue sharing agreements which are performance independent and performance related. The analysis is extended to balance-dependent income such as collective broadcast contracts.