This timely book takes both a practical and academic perspective of innovation in sport management, exploring the role of entrepreneurship in sport. With its interdisciplinary approach, it provides a holistic overview of the ways in which sport is both innovative and entrepreneurial.
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Outcome Uncertainty in Sporting Events
Winning, Losing and Competitive Balance
Edited by Plácido Rodríguez, Stefan Kesenne and Brad R. Humphreys
This book examines competitive balance and outcome uncertainty from multiple perspectives. Chapters address the topic in different sports in a range of countries, to help to understand its significance. It provides readers with important new insights into previously unexplored dimensions as well as a rich context for better understanding why fans, teams, and leagues value competitive balance. The book challenges readers to think about the topic in a broad and rigorous way, and in some cases to question widely held beliefs about how outcome uncertainty motivates competitive balance, and how sports fans actually view competitive balance.
Historical Perspectives on Sports Economics
Lessons from the Field
Edited by John K. Wilson and Richard Pomfret
The sports sector, apart from being of economic significance in itself, is clearly one that many citizens share a great interest in. It is not mere results, but aspects such as history, statistics, interest in labour markets and finances that often spark people’s interest. Historical Perspectives on Sports Economics explores a variety of topics including mega-event analysis, sports governance, anthropometrics, gambling, industrial organisation, infrastructure development and racial issues.
Edited by Mathieu Winand and Christos Anagnostopoulos
Sports governance has developed into a considerable field of research, and has piqued many researchers’ interest worldwide. What’s more, recent scandals that have affected the world of sport can be directly related to misgovernance. Research Handbook on Sport Governance aims to gather the state-of-the art research on sports governance. It offers a vital reference point for advancing research on the matter, while illustrating different approaches and perspectives, such as good governance principles, systemic governance, political governance and network governance.
Edited by Neil Longley
Sport is an effective industry in which to empirically test theories of personnel economics, primarily because the employer-employee relationship in sport is much more visible and transparent than in almost any other industry. This book examines personnel economics within the context of the professional sport industry. The chapters are organized around the core functional areas of personnel economics and cover all aspects of the employment relationship in sport – from recruiting and selection, to pay and performance, to work team design.
Brian Goff
“Sport has the power to change the world.” Sports Economics Uncut expresses this insight from Nelson Mandela, exploring sports as a fascinating mirror of the world and a powerful agent of change. In it, Brian Goff covers subjects ranging from the ebb and flow of racial discrimination, to inequality, law enforcement, managers and risky decisions, club membership, and politics. Much more than merely a review or synthesis, this book extends existing perspectives and explores provocative questions such as: how systematic is racial bias in pro sports today? Is all racial segregation in sports due to racial bias? How much are college athletes really worth, and is league parity really optimal?
Edited by Plácido Rodríguez, Brad R. Humphreys and Robert Simmons
This unique book delves into a number of intriguing issues and addresses several pertinent questions including, should gambling markets be privatized? Is the ‘hot hand’ hypothesis real or a myth? Are the ‘many’ smarter than the ‘few’ in estimating betting odds? How are prices set in fixed odds betting markets? The book also explores the informational efficiency of betting markets and the prevalence of corruption and illegal betting in sports.
Edited by Richard Pomfret and John K. Wilson
From professional team sports to international events such as the Olympics and Tour de France, the modern sports industry continues to attract a large number of spectators and participants. This book, edited by Richard Pomfret and John K. Wilson analyzes the economic evolution of sports over the last 150 years, from a pastime activity to a big business enterprise. It begins at a time when entrepreneurs and players first started making money from professional sports leagues, through to the impact of radio and TV in the twentieth century, and onto the present day.
Edited by Michael Barry, James Skinner and Terry Engelberg
Employment relations, much discussed in other industries, has often been neglected in professional sports despite its unique characteristics. The book aims to explore in detail the unique nature of the employment relationship in professional sports and the sport industry.
Disequilibrium Sports Economics
Competitive Imbalance and Budget Constraints
For decades, sports economics has been set within the framework of equilibrium economics, in particular when modelling team sport leagues. Based on a conviction that this does not reflect real life, this book addresses a gap in the literature and opens up a new research area by applying concepts drawn from disequilibrium economics. It is divided into two parts, the first of which focuses on economic disequilibrium in sports markets and competitive imbalance in sporting contests. The second part concentrates on soft budget constraints and their consequences for club governance and management.