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Cover of: Competitive Balance in Team Sports: The Scoring Context, Referees, and Overtime
Loek Groot

Competitive Balance in Team Sports: The Scoring Context, Referees, and Overtime

Section: Article
Volume 165 (2009) / Issue 3, pp. 384-400 (17)
Published 09.07.2018
DOI 10.1628/093245609789471961
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Summary
This paper focuses on a qualitative comparison between European football and U.S. team sports with respect to the effects of the number of goals per match, impartial errors of the referee, and overtime versus ties on the natural level of competitive balance. The more goals and the more perfect the referee, the more drastic are the measures needed to maintain competitive balance. Taking into account that the optimal level of competitive balance is lower in open leagues than in closed leagues, the combined effect of these factors may explain why in U.S. team sports special measures are in force to maintain competitive balance, which are absent in Europe.