This article reexamines the calculation of the relative standard deviation (RSD) measure of competitive balance in leagues in which draws are possible outcomes. Some key conclusions emerging from the exchange between Cain and Haddock and Fort are reversed. There is no difference, for any given...

This article presents evidence showing that success in football and men’s basketball at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level positively affects enrollment of local high school graduates at a college or university. Panel regressions for eight California...

How do the rewards for a victory influence the soccer teams' offensiveness? The authors argue that a “home bias†induces the home team to play excessively offensively, in the sense that the home team does not maximize the tangible returns from a match. When the rewards for a victory...

This article examines the determinants of the earnings of PGA Tour golfers from the period 1992-2001. Our goal is to determine whether the returns to various golf skills have changed over time. In recent years, golf analysts have claimed that driving distance has become the preeminent skill in...

In this article, we use attendance data from the two main domestic cricket leagues in England and Wales to estimate the impact of a series of recent structural changes. We find that changes to the organization of cricket in England have had major impacts on attendance. Attendance is...

In this article, the author reconsiders the so-called win maximization model, taking into account a number of criticisms that have been raised in the literature. One of the main issues is the application of the more relevant Cournot-Nash equilibrium, rather than the Walrasian fixed-supply model,...

From historical odds Cain and Haddock assign the probability of a tie at 25% and offer functional forms for the standard deviation of a league with equal chances of a win for each team under different point assignment schemes. They then track the ratio of actual to these idealized standard...

In this article, the authors test two different kinds of bias—the favorite-long shot/favorite-underdog bias and the home team bias—and distinguish between the two, using a distinctive feature of the Australian Football League (AFL): the fact that many games are played on neutral...

This article addresses effects caused by the transition from a 2-1-0 to a 3-1-0 award system in soccer. The first part of the article discusses consequences of the transition on offensive versus defensive play. This part may be seen as a valuable supplement to work by Brocas and Carrillo (2004)...

We re-examine incentives in Major League Baseball contracts by considering performance over the duration of the contract. We consider both the incentive to perform in order to maximize the subsequent contract and the disincentive of a fixed salary. We isolate the effect of the latter by...