We analyze the effect of national diversity on sports team performance. Due to language barriers, we expect the team’s productivity to decrease with the number of nationalities, but that the introduction of further nations and further aspects of different cultures might lead to additional...

Based on the analysis of the specific industry environment in which football clubs compete, this paper presents a comparative institutional analysis of three paradigmatic structures of football club governance: classical (privately owned) football firms, modern football corporations (stock...

Unlike the existing literature on sports betting, which concentrates on arbitrage within a single market, this paper examines inter-market arbitrage by searching for arbitrage opportunities through combining bets at the bookmaker and the exchange market. Using the posted odds of eight different...

Theory predicts that the interaction type within a team moderates the impact of talent disparity on team productivity. Using panel data from professional German soccer teams, we test talent composition effects at different team levels characterized by different interaction types. At the match...

Historically, European team sports leagues were run by their respective national and international associations and were legally independent from the professional clubs playing in these leagues. Recently, European leagues have adopted an organizational form similar to their North American...

In order to avoid too many tied games after playing the five-minute overtime period, the National Hockey League introduced two rule changes in the 1999-2000 season. First, a team that loses in overtime receives one point instead of zero points. Second, the number of skaters in overtime is...

Economic theories of superstar emergence concentrate on the perceived quality of the star’s performance. Thus superstars are identified by perceived talent superiority. Information technology and mass media have recently released a new type of stars: celebrities who are just known for being...

This paper analyses the short- to medium-term determinants of demand for professional team sports. Focusing on the economically important demand for TV broadcasts in this area, Dietl/Franck/Roy enter territory that is mostly unexplored by sports economists so far. Several potential determinants...

This paper studies the welfare effect of a percentage-of-revenue salary cap in a European context with win-maximizing clubs. It shows that a percentage-of-revenue cap increases competitive balance and decreases the overall salary payments in the league, therefore contributing to financial...