Competitive balance in the UEFA Champions League group stage: Novel measures show no evidence of decline

IF 4.5 3区管理学 Q1 OPERATIONS RESEARCH & MANAGEMENT SCIENCE

Annals of Operations Research Pub Date : 2025-08-12 DOI:10.1007/s10479-025-06780-9

László Csató, Dóra Gréta Petróczy

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Competitive balance, which refers to the level of control teams have over a sports competition, is a crucial indicator for tournament organisers. According to previous studies, competitive balance has significantly declined in the UEFA Champions League group stage over the recent decades. Our paper introduces alternative indices to investigate this issue. Two ex ante measures are based on Elo ratings, and four dynamic concentration indicators compare the final group ranking to reasonable benchmarks. Using these indices, we find no evidence of any long-run trend in the competitive balance of the UEFA Champions League group stage between the 2003/04 and 2023/24 seasons.

查看原文本刊更多论文

欧洲冠军联赛小组赛的竞争平衡：新措施显示没有下降的迹象

竞技平衡，指的是球队对体育比赛的控制水平，是赛事组织者的一个重要指标。根据之前的研究，近几十年来，欧洲冠军联赛小组赛阶段的竞争平衡明显下降。本文引入了替代指标来研究这一问题。两个事前指标基于Elo评级，四个动态浓度指标将最终的集团排名与合理的基准进行比较。使用这些指数，我们发现在2003/04赛季和2023/24赛季之间，欧洲冠军联赛小组赛阶段的竞争平衡没有任何长期趋势的证据。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Annals of Operations Research 管理科学-运筹学与管理科学

CiteScore

7.90

自引率

16.70%

发文量

596

审稿时长

8.4 months

期刊介绍： The Annals of Operations Research publishes peer-reviewed original articles dealing with key aspects of operations research, including theory, practice, and computation. The journal publishes full-length research articles, short notes, expositions and surveys, reports on computational studies, and case studies that present new and innovative practical applications. In addition to regular issues, the journal publishes periodic special volumes that focus on defined fields of operations research, ranging from the highly theoretical to the algorithmic and the applied. These volumes have one or more Guest Editors who are responsible for collecting the papers and overseeing the refereeing process.