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The Effect of Seeding on Tournament Outcomes: Evidence From a Regression-Discontinuity Design

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  • Oliver Engist
  • Erik Merkus
  • Felix Schafmeister

Abstract

Seeding in tournaments is a process of creating a schedule based on performance in the recent past. It is used in many athletic disciplines to ensure that particularly attractive match ups do not occur until the later stages of the tournament. We exploit the discontinuous nature of the seeding system in the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League as a natural experiment to estimate the causal effect of being seeded. We find no evidence that seeding itself contributes positively to the team’s success in the tournament. This finding is surprising given the substantial drop in average strength of the opponents for seeded teams and in striking opposition to the findings of previous studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Oliver Engist & Erik Merkus & Felix Schafmeister, 2021. "The Effect of Seeding on Tournament Outcomes: Evidence From a Regression-Discontinuity Design," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(1), pages 115-136, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:22:y:2021:i:1:p:115-136
    DOI: 10.1177/1527002520955212
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Chen Cohen & Ishay Rabi & Aner Sela, 2023. "Optimal seedings in interdependent contests," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 328(2), pages 1263-1285, September.
    2. Lapré Michael A. & Palazzolo Elizabeth M., 2022. "Quantifying the impact of imbalanced groups in FIFA Women’s World Cup tournaments 1991–2019," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 18(3), pages 187-199, September.
    3. Lapré Michael A. & Palazzolo Elizabeth M., 2023. "The evolution of seeding systems and the impact of imbalanced groups in FIFA Men’s World Cup tournaments 1954–2022," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 19(4), pages 317-332, December.
    4. L'aszl'o Csat'o, 2023. "Club coefficients in the UEFA Champions League: Time for shift to an Elo-based formula," Papers 2304.09078, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2023.
    5. Lunander Anders & Karlsson Niklas, 2023. "Choosing opponents in skiing sprint elimination tournaments," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 19(3), pages 205-221, September.
    6. Csató, László & Bodnár, Gergely, 2023. "Mérhetnénk jobban a csapatok erejét a Bajnokok Ligájában? Fontos megjegyzés az Európai Labdarúgó-szövetség számára [How to better measure team strength in the Champions League. An important message," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(7), pages 813-827.

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