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PurposeThe introduction of professionalism in 1995 posed serious challenges for Rugby Union in Ireland, Scotland and Wales given their limited fan bases and broadcast markets. It led to the creation of a new league, the Pro14, with teams from all three countries. The paper asks whether the Pro14 has been a success and whether it might offer lessons for other sports. It thus seeks to extend the knowledge base on professional team sports and derive lessons for management of professional sports leagues in small countries.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyse Pro14 performance using a range of metrics, including attendances, competitive balance and team performances, in European competitions. The authors also analyse the limited financial data available for Pro14 teams.FindingsPro14 teams have competed successfully in European competition, offering support for claims that mergers of smaller country leagues could improve competitive balance in European soccer. The Pro14 has increased attendances through specific measures and increased broadcast income through geographic expansion. Many Pro14 teams have struggled financially. Several English and French rugby clubs have also experienced financial problems, suggesting that European rugby may need to introduce financial fair play rules (FFPs) similar to soccer.Practical implicationsThe paper has implications for the Pro14 and its member clubs, particularly with reference to competition design. It may also have lessons for European football where some have suggested that mergers of smaller country leagues could improve competitive balance in European competitions.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the academic discussion on professional team sports, particularly Rugby Union. The paper has implications for Pro14 clubs and league organisers, particularly with reference to competition design. It may also have lessons for European soccer where some have suggested that mergers of smaller country leagues could reduce the dominance of larger country leagues.

The phenomenon of home advantage (home bias) is well-analyzed in the scientific literature. But only the COVID-19 pandemic enabled studies on this phenomenon—for the first time in history—on a global scale. Thus, several studies to date examined the effects of empty stadiums by comparing regular matches (with supporters) before the COVID-19 restrictions with so-called ghost games (games without supporters) during the pandemic. To synthesize the existing knowledge and offer an overview regarding the effects of ghost games on home advantage we provide a systematic literature review on this topic. Our findings—based on 26 primary studies—indicate that ghost games have a considerable impact on the phenomenon of home advantage. Deeper analysis further indicates that this effect is based on a reduced “referee bias” and a lack of “emotional support from the ranks”. From a psychological perspective, we argue that our conclusions are highly relevant by emphasizing decision making under pressure and crowd-induced motivation in sports. From a socio-economic perspective, we argue that our findings legitimize a discussion regarding compensation of fans after sporting success as plausible and worth considering. Thus, our results are significant for scientists, sports and team managers, media executives, fan representatives and other persons responsible in the football industry. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11301-021-00254-5.

Globalisation affects not only politics and the economy, but also sport, which has become significantly more international, competitive and financially powerful. This is particularly advantageous for most consumers or spectators. Especially top athletes benefit, while not so good athletes can suffer from the greater competitive pressure. The same applies to event organisers and the mass media, from which the best and largest in particular benefit. Poorer nations can more easily enter and win international competitions, although richer nations retain advantages. All in all, globalisation of sports is not a zero-sum game, but the benefits outweigh the costs. Die Globalisierung betrifft nicht nur Politik und Wirtschaft, sondern auch den Sport, der viel internationaler, kompetitiver und finanzkräftiger geworden ist. Das ist insbesondere für die meisten Konsumenten bzw. Zuschauer von Vorteil. Auch Spitzensportler profitieren, während nicht ganz so gute Athleten unter dem größeren Wettbewerbsdruck leiden können. Dasselbe gilt für Veranstalter und Massenmedien, von denen vor allem die besten und größten profitieren. Ärmere Nationen können leichter an internationalen Wettbewerben teilnehmen und auch gewinnen, wenngleich reichere Nationen Vorteile behalten. Insgesamt handelt es sich nicht um ein Nullsummenspiel, sondern überwiegen die Vorteile der Globalisierung des Sports.

Does social capital always promote solidarity and democracy, or are social networks such as sports clubs also vulnerable to populism? We exploit quasi-experimental variation in sports club membership in German cities. Sports clubs are booming in cities with successful soccer teams which pass the promotion threshold for a higher division, but not where teams marginally missed on promotion. Difference-in-differences estimations show that far-right populists enjoy more support in cities with higher sports club membership rates in the wake of marginally promoted soccer teams. The populist momentum is however rather short-living, indicating that sports clubs intensify group polarization but are not a spot of permanent radicalization.

The sport economic literature relies on the city size to proxy for the size of the home market of sports teams. This paper seeks to clarify whether the commonly used definition for home market size in sports economics is actually a valid measure for revenue potential in the modern digital age. Specifically, in this empirical exercise the interest is to investigate to what extent social media following is adding to our understanding of home markets. In doing so, it closely connects to the literature on outcome uncertainty, by considering the compounded season uncertainty for home games, and the literature on superstars in sport as a determinant for demand. The econometric analysis uses NFL stadium attendance data between 2009 and 2019 to examine the question of the relationship of social media and stadium attendance. It applies censored tobit models to estimate the effects. The results suggest a significant relationship between social media following and stadium attendance, even when controlling for the metropolitan area where the stadium is located. It argues that our commonly used definition of home market size is built on the outdated concept of localized markets and should be revisited.

This comment addresses the opinion of the Advocate General (AG) of the European Court of Justice on the pending case European Super League versus UEFA/FIFA. It takes a critical perspective on selected aspects of the opinion's reasoning from a (sports) economics perspective. Highlighting the special characteristics of sports markets, the assessment of the AG Opinion raises questions such as (i) the (lack of) empirical evidence that the incumbent pursues and/or meets the legitimate objectives while the latter is still used as justifying reasons for anticompetitive conduct and arrangements (section III), (ii) the prohibitive entry barriers raised by the non-existence of a transparent and non-discriminatory authorization system preventing open competition for championships formats and organization by objective and effect (section IV), and (iii) the difficult search for a convincing theory of harm justifying the brutal enforcement of single-homing by the incumbent (section V).

Dieser Beitrag beleuchtet drei zentrale Diskussionsbereiche mit Blick auf die Anwendung des Wettbewerbsrechts auf kommerzialisierte Sportmärkte im Allgemeinen und Märkte für den europäischen Spitzenfußball im Speziellen. Hierbei handelt es sich um die wettbewerbspolitische und sportökonomische Bewertung der Zentralvermarktung von Übertragungsrechten, der sog. 50plus1-Sonderregel im deutschen Fußball sowie die fundamentale Frage der Marktmacht von marktinternen Regulierern (z.B. UEFA oder DFB) und ihrer Begrenzung. Die Gemeinsamkeit dieser drei Diskussionsbereichen liegt in der sportspezifischen Besonderheit, dass eine (marktinterne) Regulierung in der Regel als notwendig anerkannt wird - allerdings häufig, ohne dass gleichzeitig Handlungsspielräume und Anreize für Marktmachtmissbrauch durch den marktinternen Regulierer angemessen berücksichtigt werden. Anhand der drei Beispiele werden Marktmacht, Handlungsspielraum und antikompetitive Dual-Role-Anreize von Sportverbänden diskutiert, wobei ein Hauptaugenmerk auf die Einbindung von (empirischer) sportökonomischer Evidenz gelegt wird.

Experts' voting behavior is conjectured to be more objective than peer voting (own group/peers) and public voters (everyone interested), who are supposedly influenced by all sorts of subjective aspects. We examine differences in voting behavior between these groups by analyzing the voting outcomes for all-star teams in American Football. This paper analyzes the impact of performance as well as non-performance markers and team effects on the voting outcome. It contains a comparative analysis across the mentioned groups to elaborate on differences. The econometric analysis uses unbalanced panel data of All-Pro and Pro Bowl player selections over 78 seasons (1951-2019). It applies panel probit regression to assess the impact of the markers on the outcome probability of winning one of the All-Star awards. We find that expert, peer, and public voting show similarities and are partially driven by the same performance and non-performance markers. However, none of the three analyzed voting systems is free from the influence of non-performance markers. We find exposure effects as well as effects from team affiliation in all of them, including in fact expert voting. Positive effects of team success are found in expert and, to a lesser extent, in peer voting. Team-specific effects are found in public voting, providing evidence for partisanship voting by fans. Our results shed doubt on the suspected objectiveness of expert voting. Furthermore, they fortify the notion of public voting being inefficient at identifying objective quality and extend the literature on voting biases among experts, peers, and the general public.

Football coaches must inevitably prepare their strategies not only for the upcoming match but also be prepared to restructure their strategies during the match itself. But there's more than that. The coach's duties extend beyond the four lines on weekends. The coach and his staff must plan a full week of training while considering everyone's current physical capabilities to avoid excessive fatigue or an injury that could prevent the player from being eligible to play for weeks. It is unquestionably in a coach's best interest to keep his players from being hurt or over-exhausted to the point where they are no longer suitable for the upcoming game. Fatigue or injuries are occurrences that can have a negative impact on every club stakeholder. Following investigations conducted by notable researchers like Bangsbo et al. (2006), Krustrup et al. (2010), Mohr et al. (2003), Rampini et al. (2009), Novak et al. (2021), and others, it was possible to achieve highly encouraging results that could actually be useful for coaches by providing them with knowledge of their players' degrees of fatigue in anticipation by developing a predictive model for three different time periods of anticipation (5-minutes; 10-minutes and 20-minutes) based on accurate monitoring of the players' GPS positions. Academically, it is believed that this work will open the door for more research initiatives of this kind as it was among the first, if not the first, to integrate real data to develop a realistic prediction model that could be used to evaluate fatigue. Os treinadores de futebol devem inevitavelmente preparar as suas estratégias não apenas para o próximo jogo, mas também estar preparados para redesenhar as mesmas durante a própria partida. Mas há mais do que isso. As funções do treinador vão para além das quatro linhas ao fim-de-semana. O treinador e o seu staff devem planear uma semana inteira de treinos, considerando as capacidades físicas, atuais, dos jogadores, com o objetivo de evitar fadiga excessiva ou lesões que possam impedir os jogadores de ser opção para jogar durante semanas. É inquestionavelmente do interesse de um treinador evitar que os seus jogadores se lesionem ou fiquem fatigados ao ponto de não serem opções válidas para o próximo jogo. Fadiga ou lesões são ocorrências que podem ter impacto negativo em todos os stakeholders do clube. Suportado em investigações conduzidas por investigadores notáveis como Bangsbo et al. (2006), Krustrup et al. (2010), Mohr et al. (2003), Rampini et al. (2009), Novak et al. (2021), e outros, foi possível obter resultados altamente encorajadores que podem ser realmente úteis para os treinadores, possibilitando fornecer informação relativamente ao grau de fadiga dos jogadores antecipadamente, através de um modelo preditivo desenvolvido para três diferentes períodos (5-minutos; 10-minutos e 20-minutos) com base na monitorização nas coordenadas GPS. Academicamente, acredita-se que este trabalho poderá abrir portas para mais iniciativas de pesquisa no âmbito, dado que foi uma das primeiras, se não a primeira, a integrar dados reais para desenvolver um modelo preditivo realista que pode ser usado para classificar fadiga.

In a context where football has long established itself as the most popular sport in Portugal, with a clear predominance of three clubs (all centenarians), there is no doubt that the creation of SAS – Sports Anonymous Societies, which took place in the late 1990s, marked a clear change in the way football is managed within the clubs. After more than 20 years have passed since the creation of this type of Societies, despite the existence of some literature on the matter, doubts persist about their effectiveness, namely about the effectiveness of the expected benefits, in view of the evolution that has occurred and, above all, of the management models implemented. It is therefore intended, with the performance of this work, to elaborate a reflection on the impacts resulting from the creation of Sports Anonymous Societies in the management of Football Clubs, in the various aspects inherent to their existence, objectives and results. The present work is therefore based on research on the results obtained by the Companies that manage the three biggest clubs in Portugal, focusing on their financial performance, obtaining sports results and also on the relationship they develop with the different stakeholders within the football ecosystem in Portugal. Due to the fundamental role that the management of these Societies assumes, a special focus will naturally be given to the impact of their measures, namely in guaranteeing the financial and sporting sustainability of the clubs, whose reason is fundamentally based on football. Num contexto em que o futebol há muito se afirmou como o desporto mais popular em Portugal, com uma predominância clara de três clubes (todos centenários), sem dúvida que a criação das SAD - Sociedades Anónimas Desportivas, ocorrida no final da década de 90, marcou uma mudança clara na forma como a gestão do futebol é exercida no seio dos clubes. Passados que estão mais de 20 anos sobre a criação deste tipo de Sociedades, apesar de existir alguma literatura sobre a matéria, persistem dúvidas sobre a sua eficácia, nomeadamente sobre a efetividade dos benefícios esperados, em face da evolução ocorrida e sobretudo dos modelos de gestão implementados. Pretende-se, com a realização deste trabalho, elaborar uma reflexão sobre os impactos decorrentes da criação das Sociedades Anónimas Desportivas na gestão dos Clubes de Futebol, nas várias vertentes inerentes, a sua existência, objetivos e resultados. O presente trabalho assenta então numa pesquisa sobre os resultados obtidos pelas Sociedades que gerem os três maiores clubes em Portugal, focando-se na sua performance financeira, obtenção de resultados desportivos e ainda na relação que desenvolvem com os diferentes stakeholders no seio do ecossistema do futebol em Portugal. Pelo papel fundamental que a gestão destas Sociedades assume, será naturalmente dado um enfoque especial ao impacto das suas medidas, nomeadamente no garante da sustentabilidade financeira e desportiva dos clubes, cuja razão da sua existência assenta fundamentalmente no futebol.

The tournament rules for long jump competitions have changed in recent years. Today, only the three athletes with the best jumps from the five initial attempts are qualified to make an additional sixth jump - a format called The Final Three. In the first implemented version of The Final Three, the top athletes sequentially make one final jump, starting with the athlete ranked third place from the initial attempts. The athlete with the longest jump in this sixth attempt wins the competition, irrespective of achieved results in previous attempts. In this study, we analyze the effect of the athletes' jump order on the probability of winning the competition within this first implemented version of The Final Three. We derive the final's symmetric subgame perfect equilibrium and compute the corresponding equilibrium winning probabilities, given the values assigned to the distributional parameters. The modelling of the game is preceded by a development of a stochastic model for the outcome in long jumping. An athlete affects the distribution of the outcome by choosing where to start her approach run. Our results indicate a last mover advantage, albeit small. The athlete jumping last, wins the final with a probability 0.35, followed by the athlete jumping second with a probability 0.33 to win the final.

We report results from the first experimental study of round-robin tournaments. In our experiment, we investigate how the prize structure affects the intensity, fairness, and dynamic behavior in sequential round-robin tournaments with three players. We compare tournaments with a second prize equal to either 0%, 50%, or 100% of the first prize. While theory predicts the 50%-treatment to be most intense, we find that aggregate effort is highest in the 0%-treatment. In contrast, our evidence supports the predictions that the 50%-treatment is fairest (though not perfectly fair), whereas the late mover is advantaged in the 100%-treatment and disadvantaged in the 0%-treatment. Also in line with the theory, we identify a strategic (reverse) momentum: after winning the first match, a player increases (decreases) effort in the second match of the 0%-treatment (100%-treatment). Additional findings suggest that dynamic behavior is also subject to a psychological momentum.

In the various fields of creative, cultural, and artistic production, there exists a competitive struggle amongst creators of innovative works or ideas to persuade agents in the field to accept and value the new work. This is a significant challenge since cultural innovators do not produce in response to existing demand, but must create new demand for what they are supplying (Bourdieu (1996)). A common polemical tactic is to demarcate the new style from existing predominant ones by appealing to and extolling the virtues of a still earlierstyle that is maintained to have classic historical status, and thus lacking the corruption or excess of the prevailing style. The proposed innovation is purported, by the creators themselves or the critics who champion them, to renew the classic principles of the historic style, and in their polemic the new breed of creators attempt to persuade the field to revaluate the historic style, and thus by affinity the new style, to the detriment of the prevailing style, which must be devalued. Current evaluative judgements of the relative merits of past and existing styles are thus revised, in favour of the former. This evolution in retrospective judgement of styles can in principle be measured. In the field of golf course architecture, the stylistic revolution unleashed in the early 1990's was accompanied by the new architects and their critics extolling the pre-war "Golden Age" of architecture to the detriment of what they called the "Dark Ages" of post-war architecture. We measure the effect of this polemic on the field's overall judgment through an empirical analysis of 30 years of widely read and discussed biannual rankings of the 100 Greatest Courses in the United States as assembled and published by the major magazines Golf Digest and Golf Magazine, and find significant evidence that the rankings evolved during this period in favour of pre-war courses as opposed to post-war courses built before 1990.

We analyze the natural experiment of ghost games in the 2019/2020 season of the German football Bundesliga and confirm previous studies showing that the home advantage diminishes if the stadium is empty. However, our paper is the first that distinguishes between effort- and skill-based tasks in this setting. In line with behavioral economics, we observe that a supportive audience has a positive effect on effort-based performance but a negative effect on some offensive skill-based performance measures.

There are noticeable conceptual differences between competing concepts for organizing the highest level of European Football. One major conceptual controversy is concerned with the question whether fans have a stronger preference for (more) games between the top teams over a broad participation of less well-known clubs representing more of the regions in Europe or vice versa. Since sports economics theory offers explanations for both views, this paper takes an empirical approach and analyzes revealed fan preferences in a market outside of the Big-5 leagues. It examines the impact of uncertainty of outcome, market value as well as local heroes (domestic players & teams) as determinants of demand in national TV in Denmark. It uses representative panel data of national TV demand for UEFA Champions League games in Denmark from 2006/07-2018/19. We estimate a semi-logarithmic OLS regression model with team fixed-effects where the dependent variable is the natural logarithm of the average TV audience of UCL matches broadcasted in Denmark. We find that the presence of superstar clubs as measured by accumulated market value of players increases broadcast audience significantly, whereas the number of superstar players in a game did not. Matches including Danish clubs (domestic clubs) as well as the number of Danish players on a team's roster (local hero players) show no robust effect on TV audience. Uncertainty of outcome increases TV demand in our model, supporting the UOH for TV audiences and furthering the discussion around diverging preferences between stadium attendance and TV demand. There are noticeable conceptual differences between competing concepts for organ-izing the highest level of European Football, One major conceptual controversy is concerned with the question whether fans have a stronger preference for (more) games between the top teams over a broad participation of less well-known clubs representing more of the regions in Europe or vice versa, Since sports economics theory offers explanations for both views, this paper takes an empirical approach and analyzes revealed fan preferences in a market outside of the Big-5 leagues, It examines the impact of uncertainty of outcome, market value as well as local heroes (domestic players & teams) as determinants of demand in national TV in Denmark, It uses representative panel data of national TV demand for UEFA Champions League games in Denmark from 2006/07-2018/19, We estimate a semi-logarithmic OLS regression model with team fixed-effects where the dependent variable is the natural logarithm of the average TV audience of UCL matches broadcasted in Denmark, We find that the presence of superstar clubs as measured by accumulated market value of players increases broadcast audience significantly, whereas the number of superstar players in a game did not, Matches including Danish clubs (domestic clubs) as well as the number of Danish players on a team's roster (local hero players) show no robust effect on TV audience, Uncertainty of outcome increases TV demand in our model, supporting the UOH for TV audiences and furthering the discussion around diverging preferences between stadium attendance and TV demand.

The controversy around the breakaway European Super League, set to conquer the UEFA Champions League, and the surrounding antitrust proceedings revive the academic discussion about the monopoly power of sport-internal governing bodies (like the UEFA), the justification for and limits of their powers, and potential abuses of their power. Against this background, we discuss how much monopoly is unavoidable in premier-level European football and how its powers can be limited and, thus, scope and incentives for power abuse may be reduced. We particularly find that championship management can be periodically assigned to third-parties (like the Super League organizers) by tender procedures, thus, creating a periodical competition for the market, fueling innovation incentives and strengthening the influence of fans' preferences.

In alpine skiing competitions, one of the coaches of the participating countries sets the course. This may provide an advantage, but it may also exert higher pressure on the racers. We analyze 40,150 men's and 36,968 women's performances from all competitions in alpine skiing's Slalom, Giant Slalom, and Super Giant disciplines that took place in the World Cups, World Championships, and Olympic Games between the 2001-02 and 2017-2018 seasons. We compare the performance of racers when competing on a course that was set by their compatriot to the performance of the same racers in the same season when the course was set by a coach from another country. Having a compatriot course setter only has an effect in the second (and decisive) run of the most technical discipline Slalom. We find that men fail significantly more often to complete their run when their compatriots set the course, whereas women fail significantly less in the same situation. The most likely drivers of our results relate to gender differences in response to feedback and choking under pressure in skill-based tasks.

The support of home spectators is one of the contributing factors to the home advantage effect in sports matches. The Covid-19 pandemic led to European soccer matches being played without spectators. We show that betting markets adjusted swiftly to account for a reduced home advantage in both goal difference and the probability of a win. These adjustments proved accurate over a large sample of soccer matches subsequently played without spectators even though the earliest games appeared to suggest a much bigger change in home advantage.

Wir analysieren, ob die Gründung der Eurozone und die Eurokrise einen Einfluss auf die sportliche Leistung professioneller Fußballvereine in europäischen Nationen hatten. Wir finden ein signifikant positives Vorzeichen für die Mitgliedschaft in der Eurozone auf Punkte der UEFA. Allerdings ist dieses positive Ergebnis nicht robust über die Zeit und verschwindet in Modelle mit mehr Kovariaten. Wahrscheinlich handelt es sich um einen Größeneffekt, doch zumindest brachte die Euroeinführung keine Nachteile im Fußball., We analyse whether the creation of the eurozone and the euro crisis had an effect on the sportive performance of professional football teams in European nations. We find a significantly positive sign of membership in the eurozone on UEFA points. However, this positive finding is not robust over time and disappears in models with more covariates. It is probably a size effect but at least the adoption of the euro brought no disadvantages in football.

Wir analysieren Veränderungen in der National Football League (NFL) aufgrund von Geisterspielen im Jahr 2020. Der Heimvorteil verschwindet wie erwartet. Schiedsrichterentscheidungen scheinen dafür aber nicht relevant zu sein. Auch für partielle Geisterspiele mit reduzierter Zuschauerzahl gibt es keine signifikanten Ergebnisse., We analyse changes in the National Football League (NFL) due to ghost games in 2020. The home bias disappears as expected. However, referee decisions do not seem to be relevant for this. There are also no significant results for semi-ghost games with a reduced number of spectators.

Does social media or offline social cohesion overcome collective action problems more effectively when both types of networks are prevalent? We investigate non-violent protests against a place-based economic reform in Austria—a country where one in two citizens uses Facebook but also one in two citizens is a member of a local club or civic organization. Our results show that protests spread more in places with strong offline networks as measured by real-life networks like village, folklore, or dialect clubs. We do not find that social media penetration intensifies local protests, a finding corroborated by microdata.

Fitness gyms are experiencing a particular turmoil due to the Covid-19 crisis. The fitness industry is at the heart of wellness and health and is one of the most affected by the pandemic since 2020 (Baron, 2021). The closure of gyms, the cancellation of memberships, and the advent of free online fitness classes are undeniable challenges to face. Fitness gyms must adapt quickly and understand the new needs of their customers. To this extent, fitness gyms need to rethink their business models to overcome this Covid-19 crisis. This research aims to understand the major impacts of Covid-19 on the fitness gyms industry, identify the main changes is and present a possible reinvention of a business model to guide fitness gyms in a post-pandemic era. A literature review has been completed, a survey conducted on social medias and in-depth interviews conducted with diverse fitness gyms professionals exclusively in France. The key findings that can be retained are that fitness gyms should now offer more flexibility, accessibility, and security to their members. Os ginásios de fitness estão a passar por um tumulto particular devido à crise do Covid-19. A indústria do fitness está no centro do bem-estar e da saúde e é uma das mais afeitadas pela pandemia desde 2020 (Baron, 2021). O encerramento de ginásios, o cancelamento de inscrições, e o advento de aulas de fitness online gratuitas são desafios inegáveis a enfrentar. As academias de fitness devem adaptar-se rapidamente e compreender as novas necessidades dos seus clientes. Nesta medida, os ginásios de fitness precisam de repensar os seus modelos de negócio para ultrapassar esta crise da Covid-19. Esta investigação visa compreender o grande impacto do Covid-19 na indústria dos ginásios de fitness, identificar as principais mudanças é e apresentar uma possível reinvenção de um modelo de negócio para orientar os ginásios de fitness numa era pós-pandémica. Foi concluída uma revisão bibliográfica, um inquérito realizado em meios sociais e entrevistas aprofundadas com diversos profissionais de ginásios exclusivamente em França. As principais conclusões que podem ser retidas são que os ginásios de fitness devem agora oferecer mais flexibilidade, acessibilidade e segurança aos seus membros.

Dieser Beitrag fasst die ökonomischen Besonderheiten von Unterhaltungsmärkten zusammen und legt dabei einen besonderen Fokus auf Digitalisierungseffekte. Dabei werden die Aspekte Erfahrungsgüter und Qualität, Fixkostendegression & Güterheterogenität, Super-stareffekte, die Rolle (digitaler) Medien, sowie Preis- und Geschäftsmodelle diskutiert. Ein wesentliches Ergebnis der Betrachtung ist, dass Unterhaltungsmärkte im digitalen Zeitalter anfällig werden für typische Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen in digitalen Ökosystemen. Die Autoren unterstreichen diesen Befund mit einer Auswahl an relevanten und aktuellen Wettbewerbsproblemen und -fällen. Dabei zeigt sich, dass (i) die prowettbewerbliche Wirkung der Digitalisierung auf Medienmärkte fragil ist und des aktiven wettbewerbspolitischen Schutzes bedarf, (ii) nicht-horizontale Verflechtungen in digitalen Ökosystemen erhebliche Anreize zu behinderungswettbewerblichen Strategien wie Selbstbevorzugung, Monopolisierung und Raising Rivals Costs mit sich bringen und (iii) bisher funktionierende Abhilfemaßnahmen unter den Rahmenbedingungen digitalisierter Medien- und Unterhaltungsmärkte wohlfahrtssenkende Wirkungen entfalten können. Daher bedarf es einer Modernisierung der Wettbewerbsordnung für die Unterhaltungsindustrien.

For football executives, understanding the determinants of spectator no-show behavior better is of utmost importance. Recent research efforts, however, have primarily focused on exploring the potential effects of determinants that the club management can hardly influence (e.g., potential scheduling effects, the visiting team's quality, and the weather). In contrast, our understanding of factors relating to both accommodation (e.g., the ticket price), socio-demographics (e.g., age), and also emerging no-show habits, in predicting no-show behavior is still limited. Here, departing from more traditional survey-approaches, we address this shortcoming by exploring disaggregated behavioral season ticket holder data provided by an established Swiss Super League club. Analyzing a rich data set containing roughly 2.09 million attendance decisions made by ticket holders in Switzerland between 2013 and 2016, we observe that both a season ticket holder's accommodation and his (or her) socio-demographic information can help predict subsequent no-show behavior. In particular, we notice an important role of a season ticket holders' age, his (or her) domicile, and emerging no-show habits, as well as the season ticket price. Although our results suggest that the management of clubs with a strong demand for tickets might be well-advised to begin experimenting with strategies to exploit emerging no-show habits among their season ticket holders, most executives, i.e., those operating at clubs that sell-out their stadium only occasionally, might want to prioritize efforts to increase the inherent ticket value (e.g., by reducing the ticket supply).

There is a reward for a project that can be increased through ability, effort, and cheating. This is analysed for one agent and a team of two. As an extension, a preference for honesty is added, which can prevent cheating but not without limit and not so easily in the team context. Es gibt für ein Projekt eine Belohnung, die durch Fähigkeit, Anstrengung und Betrug gesteigert werden kann. Dies wird für einen Agenten und ein Zweierteam analysiert. Als Erweiterung wird eine Präferenz für Ehrlichkeit hinzugefügt, die Betrug verhindern kann, aber nicht unbegrenzt und nicht so leicht im Teamkontext.

Professional football generates billions in revenue in Germany alone. After fifteen consecutive revenue records, the Covid 19 pandemic is leading to revenue declines in the Bundesliga. Football fans have played a major role in these declines. They no longer go to the football stadiums week after week to loudly support their teams. Not because they don't want to, but because it is no longer allowed due to the pandemic since the sixth matchday of the current 2020/21 season. In addition to the findings of declining revenues due to the lack of ticket sales, there is also the question of the significance of fans in the context of advancing commercialisation. Could the current pandemic-related spectator exclusion possibly also enact thought processes to deliberately reduce fan participation?

Despite the potential importance of awards as a possible career catalyst, the theoretical and empirical research on awards is still in its infancy. Here, we address this notable shortcoming in the economic literature by exploring data from German youth football. Analyzing whether an early career award, the so-called Fritz Walter Medal, significantly affects the awardee's career trajectory in a highly competitive environment, where performance differences are often hardly perceivable, we find that receiving an early career award seems, per se, to be a robust positive signal for a player's future career success. Intriguingly, though, both the award characteristics, that is, whether it is bestowed in gold, silver, or bronze, and also the exact age at which the awardee receives the bestowal only add limited explanatory power.

The Winter World Masters Games (WWMGs) are a large sports event for 30+-year-old athletes. As there are neither competitive qualification requirements for participants, nor entrance fees for spectators, the event can be considered as a participatory sports tourism event rather than a spectator event. In 2020, the WWMGs were staged in Innsbruck, Tyrol. In this study, we estimate the payoff of the event for the regional economy by assessing the impacts generated by participant spending and organizational expenditure. Furthermore, we discuss the peculiarities of the masters sports concept. Our empirical work is based on three distinct analyses: (1) economic impact analysis of participant spending, (2) cost-benefit analysis of organizational resource flows, and (3) discussion of impacts with experts in a focus group setting. Our results support the previous findings that masters sports events attract rather affluent and consumption-oriented participants. Indeed, the WWMGs were found to have a regional economic impact of &euro, 6.18 million and an estimated yield of &euro, 4.40 for each publicly subsidized euro. For an audience interested in the economic impact of events, this paper presents a novel method for handling non-normal expenditure distributions and adds to the understanding of how visitor segmentation can be utilized in an assessment of event impacts.

Transfermarkt.de's market value (transfermarkt value) is a topic that is discussed very often in sports economics. Based on existing literature, we assume that the Transfermarkt value is a function of different input parameters, such as player characteristics, player performance, player presentation and team performance. This paper analyzes the relationship between a player's social media activity and his market value based on transfermarkt.de. Based on a dataset of 600 players from the German Bundesliga, we find that Instagram activity has a significant impact on a player's market value. On the basis of this result, we discuss several implications for professional football players on the one hand and for clubs on the other. The paper opens up a new dimension of economic research in professional football, namely, the sport economic significance of social media.

Because of the COVID-19-pandemic the men's first German football league (Bundesliga) had to finish the season 2019/20 with ghost games as spectators were not allowed in the stadiums. Comparing these games with the regular ones between the same teams before, we find that the normal advantage for the home team disappears. One reason for this is the disappearances of the home bias of the referees whereas changes in the sportive performance of the teams seem to be irrelevant in this regard. Wegen der COVID-19-Pandemie musste die erste deutsche Bundesliga der Männer die Saison 2019/20 mit Geisterspielen beenden, da Zuschauer in den Stadien nicht zugelassen waren. Wenn wir diese Spiele mit den regulären Spielen zwischen denselben Teams vergleichen, stellen wir fest, dass der normale Vorteil für die Heimmannschaft verschwindet. Ein Grund dafür ist das Verschwinden des Bias der Schiedsrichter für die Heimmannschaft, während Änderungen in der sportlichen Leistung der Mannschaften in dieser Hinsicht irrelevant zu sein scheinen.

Die Studie analysiert das Transferverhalten der Fußballvereine der englischen Premier League, der spanischen Primera División, der deutschen Bundesliga, der italienischen Serie A und der französischen Ligue 1 im Transferfenster des Sommers 2020. Unter der Annahme, dass sich die Vereinseinnahmen aus Sponsoring, dem Verkauf von Medienrechten und Spieltagseinnahmen seit Beginn der COVID-19-Krise im März 2020 verringert haben, wurde untersucht, ob sich die verschlechterte wirtschaftliche Situation der Vereine auf ihr Transferverhalten auswirkt. Dafür werden die Transferaktivitäten jedes Vereins in den fünf europäischen Top-Ligen in den Sommertransferfenstern von 2017, 2018, 2019 und 2020 analysiert und durch ein OLS- als auch ein RE-Modell dargestellt. Mit Bezug auf das Transferfenster im Sommer 2017 als Referenzjahr sanken die Ausgaben für Transfers um etwas mehr als 22 Mio. EUR von 2019 auf 2020, unter den gleichen Konditionen sanken die Einnahmen von 2019 auf 2020 um 19 Mio. EUR. Neben den Unterschieden in Einnahmen und Ausgaben der Vereine zwischen den fünf Ligen beeinflussen zusätzlich die Teilnahme an der Champions bzw. Europa League und die Vorjahresplatzierung die Transfermarktaktivität der Vereine. This study analyzes the transfer activity of the football clubs of the English Premier League, the Spanish Primera División, the German Bundesliga, the Italian Serie A, and the French Ligue 1 in the transfer window of summer 2020. Under the assumption of shrinking revenues for football clubs from sponsoring, matchday revenue, and sale of media rights since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in March 2020, the paper investigates the consequences of the clubs' weaker economic condition on their behavior on the transfer market. Therefore, each club's transfer activities in the transfer window of summer 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 were considered and described by an OLS and RE model. In reference to the transfer summer of 2017, the expenditures for player purchases in all leagues dropped from 2019 to 2020 by more than 22 million EUR. Under the same conditions, the revenues from player sales declined by 19 million EUR. Besides the differences in revenues and expenses of clubs between the five leagues, the Champions or Europa League qualification and the previous year's rank also influence the club's transfer activity.

This paper examines the relation between crowd support and home advantage in professional soccer. For that purpose, we make use of a unique "natural experiment": so-called ghost games in the three top divisions of German professional soccer during the Corona pandemic. We find that there is a reduced home advantage in the first division, whereas no change can be observed in the second and third division. Our regression analysis indicates that the decrease in the home advantage and the different effects across the three divisions are not sensitive to a variety of performance, location, and team covariates and most suitably explained by the lower occupancy rate in the stadia. Hence, the decrease in the occupancy rates to zero at the ghost games has been less dramatic for teams that have been used to low occupancy rates. Put differently, the more a team has been used to a full stadium, the more severe is the loss of home advantage. The ghost game effect decreases over time, however, implying that players adapt and get used to the new situation. Our analysis also sheds light on potential drivers of home advantage such as stadium tracks, travel distance, derbies and within-week matches.