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No cheering in the background? Individual performance in professional darts during COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Spilker Finn

    (9167 Bielefeld University , Bielefeld, Germany)

  • Ötting Marius

    (9167 Bielefeld University , Bielefeld, Germany)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a global shutdown of sporting activities. While professional sports competitions restarted in mid-2020, spectators were usually not allowed. This paper investigates the effect of absent fans and reduced social pressure on performance in professional darts – a setting where individual player performances can be well observed. Considering almost five years of tournament data, we use Bayesian multilevel models to investigate potential heterogeneity across players concerning reduced social pressure. For our analysis, we consider the two main performance measures in darts: the three-dart average and the checkout performance. Our results indicate that the effect of reduced social pressure on performance varies substantially across players. We further find experienced players to be less affected by social pressure compared to relatively inexperienced players.

Suggested Citation

  • Spilker Finn & Ötting Marius, 2024. "No cheering in the background? Individual performance in professional darts during COVID-19," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 20(3), pages 219-234.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:jqsprt:v:20:y:2024:i:3:p:219-234:n:1002
    DOI: 10.1515/jqas-2022-0036
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    References listed on IDEAS

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