nep-spo New Economics Papers
on Sports and Economics
Issue of 2023‒04‒17
six papers chosen by
Humberto Barreto
DePauw University

  1. The Effect of Timeouts on Team Performance: Evidence from E-sports By Matías Gómez Seeber
  2. Format and schedule proposals for a FIFA World Cup with 12 four-team groups By Guajardo, Mario; Krumer, Alex
  3. The moderating effect of fan engagement on the relationship between fan knowledge and fan co-creation in social media By Mohsen Behnam; Geoff Dickson; Vahid Delshab; Anna Gerke; Parvaneh Savari Nikou
  4. Internet users’ perception about the impact of the pandemic on sports sponsorship. By Pierre Genest; Léo Trespeuch
  5. Tournament Incentives Affect Perceived Stress and Hormonal Stress Responses By Thomas Dohmen; Ingrid Rohde; Tom Stolp
  6. On the Benefit of Nonlinear Control for Robust Logarithmic Growth: Coin Flipping Games as a Demonstration Case By Anton V. Proskurnikov; B. Ross Barmish

  1. By: Matías Gómez Seeber (Department of Economics, Universidad de San Andres)
    Abstract: This study aims to determine the causal effect of timeouts on team performance. To do so, I constructed a data set on 103 high-tier Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches. I use exogenous variation stemming from technical difficulties, for example, latency issues. When defining a timeout as one having lasted at least 30 seconds - the usual tactical timeouts’ duration- having had a technical timeout increases the probability of reversing the previous round’s winner by 14.76 percentage points. This study has important implications for sports. First, it shows that the belief that timeouts can help break the other team’s momentum, and are, therefore, a valuable tool to increase the probability of winning, has some empirical support. Second, given the first point, knowing when to call a timeout could be critical to the team’s success. That is, coaches should be selected on this capability as well. Third, increasing the number of timeouts, or even making timeouts available on sports that do not currently allow them, could make the sport more competitive by making it easier to stop a team’s momentum.
    Keywords: Timeouts
    Date: 2022–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sad:ypaper:6&r=spo
  2. By: Guajardo, Mario (Dept. of Business and Management Science, Norwegian School of Economics); Krumer, Alex (Faculty of Business Administration and Social Sciences, Molde University College)
    Abstract: After the expansion of the FIFA World Cup from 32 to 48 teams starting from the 2026 edition, the initial proposal was to split the 48 national teams into 16 groups of three. Among other drawbacks, this proposal provides potential for collusion. Recently, after widespread criticism, FIFA officials signaled the possibility to re-discuss that proposal, pointing to a tournament with 12 groups of four teams. If this new proposal prevails, relevant questions arise about tournament design and schedule. In this paper, we propose tournament formats for a World Cup with 12 groups of four teams, considering a number of criteria, such as non-collusion, symmetry in rest days, no dead rubbers, and a tournament length of about one month. At the same time, our proposals attempt to adhere to the traditional format, with some nuances either in the group stage or in the knockout stage.
    Keywords: FIFA World Cup; Round-robin; scheduling; soccer
    JEL: C60 C61
    Date: 2023–03–13
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhhfms:2023_002&r=spo
  3. By: Mohsen Behnam (Urmia University); Geoff Dickson (La Trobe University); Vahid Delshab (Swinburne University of Technology [Melbourne]); Anna Gerke (Audencia Business School); Parvaneh Savari Nikou (Urmia University)
    Abstract: Purpose Social media has enhanced the ability of fans to interact with each other. Whilst previous research investigates fan co-creation, few studies focus on the interactive effects within the co-creation process. The authors develop a model for synthesizing the interactive concepts related to fan co-creation in social media, which leads to team identification. Design/methodology/approach Participants ( N = 483) were recruited from fans of clubs in the Persian Gulf Pro League of Iran. Structural equation modelling was applied to test the research model. Findings The results showed that fan knowledge facilitates fan co-creation, which in turn leads to team identification. Additionally, fan engagement had a moderating effect on the mediating role of fan co-creation in the association between fan knowledge and team identification. Research limitations/implications The findings suggest that fan knowledge is an important antecedent of fan co-creation and highlight the significance of fan co-creation in promoting team identification in highly engaged fans at football clubs. Originality/value The current study contributes to the field of fan co-creation and provides significant implications for sport fan marketers.
    Keywords: Fan co-creation fan engagement fan knowledge team identification, Fan co-creation, fan engagement, fan knowledge, team identification
    Date: 2023–01–30
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03969039&r=spo
  4. By: Pierre Genest (UQTR - Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières); Léo Trespeuch (UQTR - Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières)
    Abstract: Internet users' perception of the impact of the pandemic on sports sponsorship has been topical since the sports sector was one of the first affected by Covid-19. Companies also seem to be changing the way they communicate. By analyzing 400 comments on different social media (Facebook and Twitter), this research has shown that the pandemic is positively affecting the comments of Internet users linked to the publications of partner companies. Consistent with Demirel and Erdogmus (2016), our results tend to suggest that supporters allow for rather positive comments about followed players. Indeed, the comments are imbued with empathy for the athletes who have been affected by the Covid-19. In addition, the other athletes benefit from a majority of positive comments for the supported during this crisis. This observation allows us to highlight a reduction in the negativity of the pandemic in the comments of Internet users.
    Abstract: La perception des internautes face à l'impact de la pandémie sur le mécénat sportif est d'actualités puisque le secteur des sports fût l'un des premiers touchés par la Covid-19. Les entreprises semblent également changer leur mode de communication. Par l'analyse de 400 commentaires sur différents médias sociaux (Facebook et Twitter), cette recherche a mis en lumière que la pandémie affecte positivement les commentaires des internautes liés aux publications des entreprises partenaires. Conformément avec Demirel et Erdogmus (2016), nos résultats tendent à démontrer que les supporteurs offrent des commentaires plutôt positifs concernant les joueurs suivis. En effet, les commentaires sont empreints d'empathies pour les athlètes ayant été touchés par la Covid-19. De plus, les autres athlètes bénéficient d'une majorité de commentaires positifs pour les appuyer durant cette crise. Ce constat nous permet de souligner une réduction du négativisme de la pandémie pour les entreprises qui ont noué et maintenu leur partenariat avec les sportifs.
    Keywords: Sponsors, sponsorship, Covid-19, pandemic, internet users, Parrainage, mécénat, pandémie, internautes
    Date: 2022
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03945701&r=spo
  5. By: Thomas Dohmen (IZA (Schaumburg-Lippe-Strasse 5-9, 53113 Bonn, Germany), University of Bonn (Institute for Applied Microeconomics, Adenauerallee 24-42, 53113 Bonn, Germany), Maastricht University (Tongersestraat 53, 6211 LM Maastricht, The Netherlands).); Ingrid Rohde (Open Universiteit (Valkenburgerweg 177, 6419 AT Heerlen, The Netherlands).); Tom Stolp (Maastricht University (Tongersestraat 53, 6211 LM Maastricht, The Netherlands) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands).)
    Abstract: We conduct a laboratory experiment among male participants to investigate whether rewarding schemes that depend on work performance – in particular, tournament incentives – induce more stress than schemes that are independent of performance - fixed payment scheme. Stress is measured over the entire course of the experiment at both the hormonal and psychological level. Hormonal stress responses are captured by measuring salivary cortisol levels. Psychological stress responses are measured by self-reported feelings of stress and primary appraisals. We find that tournament incentives induce a stress response whereas a fixed payment does not induce stress. This stress response does not differ significantly across situations in which winners and losers of the tournament are publically announced and situations in which this information remains private. Biological and psychological stress measures are positively correlated, i.e. increased levels of cortisol are associated with stronger feelings of stress. Nevertheless, neither perceived psychological stress nor elevated cortisol levels in a previous tournament predict a subsequent choice between tournaments and fixed payment schemes, indicating that stress induced by incentives schemes is not a relevant criterion for sorting decisions in our experiment. Finally, we find that cortisol levels are severely elevated at the beginning of the experiment, suggesting that participants experience stress in anticipation of the experiment per se, potentially due to uncertainties associated with the unknown lab situation. We call this the novelty effect.
    Keywords: Incentives, stress, cortisol, sorting, laboratory experiment
    JEL: D23 D87 D91 M52
    Date: 2023–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:225&r=spo
  6. By: Anton V. Proskurnikov; B. Ross Barmish
    Abstract: The takeoff point for this paper is the voluminous body of literature addressing recursive betting games with expected logarithmic growth of wealth being the performance criterion. Whereas almost all existing papers involve use of linear feedback, the use of nonlinear control is conspicuously absent. This is epitomized by the large subset of this literature dealing with Kelly Betting. With this as the high-level motivation, we study the potential for use of nonlinear control in this framework. To this end, we consider a ``demonstration case'' which is one of the simplest scenarios encountered in this line of research: repeated flips of a biased coin with probability of heads~$p$ and even-money payoff on each flip. First, we formulate a new robust nonlinear control problem which we believe is both simple to understand and apropos for dealing with concerns about distributional robustness; i.e., instead of assuming that~$p$ is perfectly known as in the case of the classical Kelly formulation, we begin with a bounding set for this probability. Then, we provide a theorem, our main result, which gives a closed-form description of the optimal robust nonlinear controller and a corollary which establishes that it robustly outperforms linear controllers such as those found in the literature. A second contribution of this paper bears upon the computability of our solution. For an $n$-flip game, whereas an admissible controller has~$2^n-1$ parameters, at the optimum only~$O(n^2)$ of them turn out to be distinct. Finally, we provide some illustrations comparing robust performance with what is possible when working with the so-called perfect-information Kelly optimum.
    Date: 2023–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2303.10417&r=spo

This nep-spo issue is ©2023 by Humberto Barreto. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice.
General information on the NEP project can be found at http://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.