FiT Publishing

The collective sale of football broadcasting rights constitutes a cartel, which, in the European Union, is only allowed if it complies with a number of conditions and obligations, including inter alia, partial unbundling, and the no-single-buyer rule. These regulations were defined with traditional TV-markets in mind. However, the landscape of audio-visual broadcasting is quickly changing, with online streaming services gaining popularity and relevance. This also alters the effects of the conditions and obligations for the centralized marketing arrangements. Partial unbundling may lead to...Read more

There is a common perception that the German football system is financially more stable than other European football league systems. However, we show that the German football pyramid is no more immune to the problem of insolvency than other European football league pyramids. We provide evidence to show that insolvency occurs in German football at a frequency comparable to the English and French leagues. We also show that the pattern of insolvency is consistent with the experience of English and French football identified in Szymanski (2017) and Scelles et al. (2018). Using season-level...Read more

Recent findings in sports economics have provided both theoretical and empirical support for the hypothesis that the three-point victory rule leads home teams to choose a more defensive playing style. The main aim of this paper is to test this hypothesis by analyzing line-ups, as well as yellow and red cards. To do so, we used a difference-in-differences approach in which the Italian and French leagues were the treatment group, and the German and Spanish leagues were the control group. In addition, we used a triple-difference model to analyze whether home teams responded differently from...Read more

This paper tests for the existence of an order effect in competitive situations using the natural experiment of the introduction of the “away-goals rule” in CONMEBOL club competitions. This rule states that in a case of a two-legged fixture finishing level on goals, the team that scores more goals as a visitor will qualify for the next round. Fixed-effects logit analyses for the period 1988-2014 provide evidence that, after the application of the rule in 2005, teams that played the second leg as visitors had an increased probability of winning in regulation time. This phenomenon was...Read more

Due in part to a $200 million advertising campaign, daily fantasy sport (DFS) participation exploded in 2015. With faster payouts and unlimited lineup options, the activity has added to an already thriving fantasy sports industry. However, little is known about the distinct attitudes and behaviors that drive DFS participants. The current study examined 511 participants who played DFS-only, traditional, season-long fantasy football (TFS), and those who played both activities for motive and behavioral differences. Results indicated statistically significant motive scores differences across...Read more

As financial and sustainability pressures placed upon collegiate athletic programs grow, it is important to understand all revenue generation areas, which include luxury suites. However, while suite finances are readily available on American professional sports, the opposite appears true for collegiate sports. As the first empirical investigation on the pricing of college suites, this study aimed to contribute to the limited literature on luxury suites and help better understand the luxury suite market. Multiple regression analyses were used to develop two significant models that estimated...Read more

At the intersection of personal branding and capitalism is the legal concept of a right of publicity. Since the Supreme Court first recognized this right in Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Company in 1977, it is commonly assumed that individuals have a legal interest in protecting their name, image, and likeness from unauthorized commercial use. However, it is important to note there is no common law or statutory right of publicity on the federal level—this is a matter determined by state law. The common law right of publicity (based on decisions of the various...Read more

In recent years it has become increasingly popular to exploit the rich data available from sporting contests to obtain insights about important questions within business, finance, and economics. One question, which has been studied extensively using data from primarily soccer teams, is whether managerial turnover affects firm performance. But as in the more traditional literature in finance (e.g., Khanna & Poulsen, 1995; Weisbach, 1988) no clear consensus has been reached thus far.Read more

Television ratings for Sunday and Monday night NFL football are examined using betting market prices as explanatory variables. Primetime broadcasts are shown to respond positively to the win percentages of the teams playing and the expected amount of scoring measured by the betting market total. The point spread, measuring uncertainty of outcome, is found to have a negative, but insignificant effect on ratings. Betting market volume is shown to be influenced by the same factors as ratings, and the residuals of betting volume, known before the game is played, is shown to have a positive and...Read more

This paper critically analyzes the rules of the UEFA financial regulatory system for football clubs known as Financial Fair Play (FFP). I argue that the objectives of FFP are not really fairness but financial efficiency and that the rules are unlikely to achieve efficiency. I also contend that even from the perspective of fairness, the rules do little more than substitute one form of inequality for another. Finally I briefly assess the implications for the competition law challenge that was launched in May 2013 against the FFP breakeven rule.Read more