This paper reviews the literature on commercial sport through the lens of the economic
theory of contests/tournaments. It seeks to draw together research on incentives in …

Academic interest in the economics of professional team sports dates back as far as the mid-
1950s. Since then, many books and journal articles have been written on the subject. Much …

Football match-fixing in Greece has a relatively long history, however, from the late 1990s it
has been considered as a serious problem for the sport in the country. Despite the history of …

The increase in payouts to European football clubs appearing in the Union of European
Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League (CL) in 1999-2000 had a lasting impact …

Previous studies of attendance demand for professional team sports have failed to yield
clear‐cut findings on the importance of outcome uncertainty to consumers. But potentially …

It is well known that sports leagues need a certain degree of competitive balance in order to
survive and flourish. Without uncertainty over the outcome of individual matches and the …

Purpose This paper aims to provide empirical evidence on competitive balance in the “big
five” European football leagues, namely, the English Premier League, French Ligue 1 …

The paper presents the differences between the design of a closed and an open team sports
league. Then it compares the theoretical models of a closed league with profit maximizing …

The aim of this article is to investigate the determinants of attendance at French football
Ligue 1 matches over the period 2008–2011 with an emphasis on examining the effects of …

Rottenberg (1956) and Neale (1964) were the first to elaborate in their seminal works on the
supposed positive relation between the level of balance within a sports competition and its …