The paper analyses teams' responses to rule changes designed to encourage more entertaining play in Rugby Union's Six Nations Championship. We use a data set of all scores in the competition since 1883 to analyse the impact of rule changes on teams' strategic decisions. We find that increasing...

Rugby union only went professional in 1995, much later than other major team sports resulting in major changes in league structures. Different arrangements regarding revenue sharing and salary caps between the three main European rugby leagues provides an opportunity to test the impact of such...

The economic literature on professional sports leagues suggests supporters' utility depends on uncertainty of outcome (competitive balance) and the quality of play. Unlike soccer, where the Champions League is dominated by teams from larger countries, our analysis indicates that the ERC exhibits...

The paper analyses the impact of the relatively belated move to professionalism in Rugby Union. We use data on match attendance for 3,667 fixtures in European club Rugby over 15 seasons to estimate the effect of competitive balance on attendance. We find that (short- and medium-term) competitive...