Articles in this issue:

  • Miquel Carreras and Jaume Garcia

    The recently signed TV deals by the English Premier League and LaLiga imply that income from TV rights are expected to increase significantly in both football championships. We analyzed the impact of these revenue increases in terms of the effect on financial inequality. We conclude, and provide empirical evidence, that the expected financial imbalance between clubs will suffer an increase in absolute terms, but a decrease in relative terms for both competitions. The aim of this paper is to measure the effect of the new TV deals on the competitive balance of these championships. We...Read more

  • Vincenzo Candila and Antonio Scognamillo

    The prices offered by the fixed-odds bookmakers in the tennis betting market are biased because of the favorite-longshot phenomenon. How to derive unbiased implied probabilities underlying the published odds is the focus of this study. This paper proposes a new normalization procedure that yields unbiased probabilities, regardless of the presence of heavy underdogs. In-sample, the proposed normalization has a superior forecasting ability than the other methods. Moreover, it enables betting strategies, which produce superior returns than those obtained from the Bradley Terry type model.Read more

  • Bryan Engelhardt
    Victor Matheson
    Alex Yen
    and Maxwell Chisolm

    Roughly seven years before an Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) accepts bids from countries to host an Olympics. Subsequently, the IOC deter-mines and announces to the world who has won (and lost) the right to host. Contrary to prior evidence, we find the announcements do not affect the bidding countries’ stock markets. We complement prior studies by including additional, more recent, years of announcements, by investigating whether there are effects prior to the announcement, and by testing for an effect both parametrically and nonparametrically.

    JEL Codes:...Read more

  • Philipp Swierzy
    Pamela Wicker
    and Christoph Breuer

    Empirical research analyzing willingness-to-pay (WTP) for memberships in nonprofit sports clubs has focused on individual factors and neglected the role of organizational characteristics. However, social ecological theory suggests that contextual factors also determine individual behavior. This study’s purpose is to examine the relationship between sports club organizational capacity and individual WTP for memberships. Members participated in an online survey including a contingent valuation method (CVM) scenario to elicit WTP (n = 648). Organizational capacity was assessed in a separate...Read more

  • Matthew Buckle and Chun-Sung Huang

    A topic of ongoing interest is the level of market efficiency within sports betting. This paper analyzes the inefficiency embedded in the Super Rugby betting market. Robust methodologies widely utilized in the European football betting market are adapted and applied in our analysis of Super Rugby betting. Surprisingly, one in every three trades was found to provide an arbitrage opportunity, strongly suggesting at least weak form market inefficiency. We provide empirical evidence of differing odds quoted by bookmakers from different geographical areas, and show how such phenomena...Read more