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On the importance of tournament design in sports management: Evidence from the UEFA Euro 2020 qualification

In: Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Sport Management

Author

Listed:
  • Kjetil K. Haugen
  • Alex Krumer

Abstract

A desire to have innovative types of tournaments to increase financial benefits by reducing the number of unimportant games is a very welcome initiative. However, failing to see potential pitfalls in tournament design may prove to be harmful to public interest with potential significant negative financial consequences. In this paper we discuss the design of the qualification for the UEFA Euro 2020 that is composed of the “usual†group stage, as well as an advancement option from the newly developed Nations League. We demonstrate several shortcomings that this structure may create, such as incentives to lose a single game as well as incentives to be the worst team in the group. In addition, it is possible to qualify for the final tournament by winning only two games in the play-offs and losing all the other 16 games in the “usual†group and in the Nations League. We also show that a top-seeded team in the final tournament is disadvantaged because it has to compete against two different teams that play at their home field. Finally, we discuss the scarcity of studies on tournament design in the sports management literature and call for its inclusion into the family of traditional topics in the field.

Suggested Citation

  • Kjetil K. Haugen & Alex Krumer, 2021. "On the importance of tournament design in sports management: Evidence from the UEFA Euro 2020 qualification," Chapters, in: Vanessa Ratten (ed.), Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Sport Management, chapter 3, pages 22-35, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:15733_3
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Krumer, Alex & Megidish, Reut & Sela, Aner, 2023. "Strategic manipulations in round-robin tournaments," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 50-57.
    2. Csató, László, 2023. "How to avoid uncompetitive games? The importance of tie-breaking rules," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(3), pages 1260-1269.
    3. Csató, László, 2022. "Quantifying incentive (in)compatibility: A case study from sports," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 302(2), pages 717-726.

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