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Scheduling the Belgian Soccer League

Author

Listed:
  • Dries Goossens

    (Department of Applied Economics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium)

  • Frits Spieksma

    (Department of Applied Economics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium)

Abstract

Every sports league needs a game schedule; such a schedule is important because it influences all parties involved and even the outcome of the sports competition. Interest in Belgian soccer has increased during recent years, as has interest in sports leagues in other countries. This paper describes our experiences in scheduling the highest division in the Belgian soccer league. We describe how we automated and improved the development of the 2006--2007 season schedule, and explain how we achieved additional improvement by dividing the scheduling problem into two problems. The resulting calendar has been accepted for the 2007--2008 season. We also compare the quality of the schedules generated using different scheduling methods.

Suggested Citation

  • Dries Goossens & Frits Spieksma, 2009. "Scheduling the Belgian Soccer League," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 39(2), pages 109-118, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:39:y:2009:i:2:p:109-118
    DOI: 10.1287/inte.1080.0402
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Rasmussen, Rasmus V. & Trick, Michael A., 2008. "Round robin scheduling - a survey," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 188(3), pages 617-636, August.
    2. Guillermo Durán & Mario Guajardo & Jaime Miranda & Denis Sauré & Sebastián Souyris & Andres Weintraub & Rodrigo Wolf, 2007. "Scheduling the Chilean Soccer League by Integer Programming," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 37(6), pages 539-552, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Di Mattia, Alessandro & Krumer, Alex, 2023. "Fewer teams, more games, larger attendance? Evidence from the structural change in basketball's EuroLeague," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 309(1), pages 359-370.
    2. Yi, Xiajie & Goossens, Dries & Nobibon, Fabrice Talla, 2020. "Proactive and reactive strategies for football league timetabling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 282(2), pages 772-785.
    3. Li, Miao & Davari, Morteza & Goossens, Dries, 2023. "Multi-league sports scheduling with different leagues sizes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(1), pages 313-327.
    4. David Van Bulck & Dries Goossens & Jo¨rn Scho¨nberger & Mario Guajardo, 2020. "An Instance Data Repository for the Round-robin Sports Timetabling Problem," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 45(2), pages 184-200, May.
    5. Flavia Bonomo & Andrés Cardemil & Guillermo Durán & Javier Marenco & Daniela Sabán, 2012. "An Application of the Traveling Tournament Problem: The Argentine Volleyball League," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 42(3), pages 245-259, June.
    6. Alex Krumer & Reut Megidish & Aner Sela, 2020. "The optimal design of round-robin tournaments with three players," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 379-396, June.
    7. Celso C. Ribeiro & Sebastián Urrutia, 2012. "Scheduling the Brazilian Soccer Tournament: Solution Approach and Practice," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 42(3), pages 260-272, June.
    8. Stephan Westphal, 2014. "Scheduling the German Basketball League," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 44(5), pages 498-508, October.
    9. Guillermo Durán, 2021. "Sports scheduling and other topics in sports analytics: a survey with special reference to Latin America," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 29(1), pages 125-155, April.
    10. Dries Goossens & Jeroen Beliën & Frits Spieksma, 2012. "Comparing league formats with respect to match importance in Belgian football," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 194(1), pages 223-240, April.
    11. Dries R. Goossens & Frits C.R. Spieksma, 2012. "The Carryover Effect Does Not Influence Football Results," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 13(3), pages 288-305, June.
    12. Guillermo Durán & Mario Guajardo & Facundo Gutiérrez & Javier Marenco & Denis Sauré & Gonzalo Zamorano, 2021. "Scheduling the Main Professional Football League of Argentina," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 51(5), pages 361-372, September.
    13. Durán, Guillermo & Durán, Santiago & Marenco, Javier & Mascialino, Federico & Rey, Pablo A., 2019. "Scheduling Argentina’s professional basketball leagues: A variation on the Travelling Tournament Problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 275(3), pages 1126-1138.
    14. Van Bulck, David & Goossens, Dries, 2023. "The international timetabling competition on sports timetabling (ITC2021)," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 308(3), pages 1249-1267.
    15. D Briskorn, 2011. "A branching scheme for minimum cost tournaments with regard to real-world constraints," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 62(12), pages 2133-2145, December.
    16. van Doornmalen, Jasper & Hojny, Christopher & Lambers, Roel & Spieksma, Frits C.R., 2023. "Integer programming models for round robin tournaments," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 310(1), pages 24-33.
    17. Fernando Alarcón & Guillermo Durán & Mario Guajardo & Jaime Miranda & Hugo Muñoz & Luis Ramírez & Mario Ramírez & Denis Sauré & Matías Siebert & Sebastián Souyris & Andrés Weintraub & Rodrigo Wolf-Yad, 2017. "Operations Research Transforms the Scheduling of Chilean Soccer Leagues and South American World Cup Qualifiers," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 47(1), pages 52-69, February.
    18. Túlio A. M. Toffolo & Jan Christiaens & Frits C. R. Spieksma & Greet Vanden Berghe, 2019. "The sport teams grouping problem," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 275(1), pages 223-243, April.
    19. Chang Wang & Dries Goossens & Martina Vandebroek, 2018. "The Impact of the Soccer Schedule on TV Viewership and Stadium Attendance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(1), pages 82-112, January.
    20. Guillermo Durán & Mario Guajardo & Rodrigo Wolf-Yadlin, 2012. "Operations Research Techniques for Scheduling Chile's Second Division Soccer League," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 42(3), pages 273-285, June.
    21. Durán, Guillermo & Guajardo, Mario & Sauré, Denis, 2017. "Scheduling the South American Qualifiers to the 2018 FIFA World Cup by integer programming," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 262(3), pages 1109-1115.
    22. Andrew G. Clark & Susan Cholette & Ozgur Ozluk, 2011. "UCSF Increases Consumer Value Through Optimal Vendor-Show Scheduling," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 41(4), pages 327-337, August.
    23. Elizabeth L. Bouzarth & Benjamin C. Grannan & John M. Harris & Kevin R. Hutson, 2022. "Scheduling the Valley Baseball League," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 52(2), pages 189-197, March.
    24. Dries Goossens & Jeroen Beliën, 2023. "Teaching Integer Programming by Scheduling the Belgian Soccer League," INFORMS Transactions on Education, INFORMS, vol. 23(3), pages 164-172, May.
    25. Goller, Daniel & Krumer, Alex, 2020. "Let's meet as usual: Do games played on non-frequent days differ? Evidence from top European soccer leagues," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 286(2), pages 740-754.

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