IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jorsoc/v60y2009i1d10.1057_jors.2008.170.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

50 years of OR in sport

Author

Listed:
  • M B Wright

    (Lancaster University)

Abstract

This paper reviews about 50 years of activity in OR as applied to sports. After some history and an overview, including discussions of what we mean by sport and what we mean by OR, four themes are presented: tactics and strategy, scheduling, forecasting and ‘other’. Within each theme many papers are discussed, showing the wide range of methods used and sports analysed. The issue is then raised of who our clients are and who they ought to be—it is suggested that not nearly enough is done for amateur sport. The paper ends with a conclusion and speculations about the next 50 years.

Suggested Citation

  • M B Wright, 2009. "50 years of OR in sport," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(1), pages 161-168, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:60:y:2009:i:1:d:10.1057_jors.2008.170
    DOI: 10.1057/jors.2008.170
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/jors.2008.170
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/jors.2008.170?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen M. Pollock, 1974. "A Model for Evaluating Golf Handicapping," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 22(5), pages 1040-1050, October.
    2. Chris Hope, 2003. "When should you sack a football manager? Results from a simple model applied to the English Premiership," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 54(11), pages 1167-1176, November.
    3. T Van Voorhis, 2002. "Highly constrained college basketball scheduling," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 53(6), pages 603-609, June.
    4. Bruinshoofd, Allard & ter Weel, Bas, 2003. "Manager to go? Performance dips reconsidered with evidence from Dutch football," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(2), pages 233-246, July.
    5. Marvin Hersh & Shaul P. Ladany, 1989. "Technical Note—Optimal Pole-Vaulting Strategy," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 37(1), pages 172-175, February.
    6. M B Wright, 2007. "Case study: problem formulation and solution for a real-world sports scheduling problem," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 58(4), pages 439-445, April.
    7. Klaassen, Franc J. G. M. & Magnus, Jan R., 2003. "Forecasting the winner of a tennis match," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(2), pages 257-267, July.
    8. Kuper, Gerard H. & Sterken, Elmer, 2004. "Do skin suits increase average skating speed?," CCSO Working Papers 200404, University of Groningen, CCSO Centre for Economic Research.
    9. Kostuk, Kent J. & Willoughby, Keith A. & Saedt, Anton P. H., 2001. "Modelling curling as a Markov process," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 133(3), pages 557-565, September.
    10. A D Fitt & C J Howls & M Kabelka, 2006. "Valuation of soccer spread bets," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 57(8), pages 975-985, August.
    11. M Wright & N Hirotsu, 2003. "The professional foul in football: Tactics and deterrents," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 54(3), pages 213-221, March.
    12. Charles M. Mottley, 1954. "Letter to the Editor---The Application of Operations-Research Methods to Athletic Games," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 2(3), pages 335-338, August.
    13. Urban, Timothy L. & Russell, Robert A., 2003. "Scheduling sports competitions on multiple venues," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(2), pages 302-311, July.
    14. R. Allan Freeze, 1974. "An Analysis of Baseball Batting Order by Monte Carlo Simulation," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 22(4), pages 728-735, August.
    15. Michael Carter & Graeme Guthrie, 2002. "Cricket interruptus: Fairness and incentive in interruped cricket matches," Discussion Papers 02-07, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
    16. M Carter & G Guthrie, 2004. "Cricket interruptus: fairness and incentive in limited overs cricket matches," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(8), pages 822-829, August.
    17. G Kendall, 2008. "Scheduling English football fixtures over holiday periods," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 59(6), pages 743-755, June.
    18. Jack Brimberg & W. J. Hurley & R. E. Johnson, 1999. "A Punt Returner Location Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 47(3), pages 482-487, June.
    19. Rasmussen, Rasmus V. & Trick, Michael A., 2007. "A Benders approach for the constrained minimum break problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 177(1), pages 198-213, February.
    20. George R. Lindsey, 1963. "An Investigation of Strategies in Baseball," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 477-501, August.
    21. J M Norman, 2004. "Running uphill: energy needs and Naismith's Rule," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(3), pages 308-311, March.
    22. David Silverman & Benjamin L. Schwartz, 1973. "Technical Note—How to Win by Losing," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(2), pages 639-643, April.
    23. J M Norman & S R Clarke, 2007. "Dynamic programming in cricket: optimizing batting order for a sticky wicket," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 58(12), pages 1678-1682, December.
    24. Cooper, W.W. & Ruiz, José L. & Sirvent, Inmaculada, 2009. "Selecting non-zero weights to evaluate effectiveness of basketball players with DEA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 195(2), pages 563-574, June.
    25. Boon, Bart H. & Sierksma, Gerard, 2003. "Team formation: Matching quality supply and quality demand," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(2), pages 277-292, July.
    26. James R. Evans, 1988. "A Microcomputer-Based Decision Support System for Scheduling Umpires in the American Baseball League," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 18(6), pages 42-51, December.
    27. Alan Washburn, 1991. "Still More on Pulling the Goalie," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 21(2), pages 59-64, April.
    28. Schonberger, J. & Mattfeld, D. C. & Kopfer, H., 2004. "Memetic Algorithm timetabling for non-commercial sport leagues," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(1), pages 102-116, February.
    29. Annis David H., 2006. "Optimal End-Game Strategy in Basketball," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 2(2), pages 1-11, April.
    30. Lim, A. & Rodrigues, B. & Zhang, X., 2006. "A simulated annealing and hill-climbing algorithm for the traveling tournament problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 174(3), pages 1459-1478, November.
    31. S R Clarke & J M Norman, 1999. "To run or not?: Some dynamic programming models in cricket," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 50(5), pages 536-545, May.
    32. Victor S. Y. Lo & John Bacon-Shone & Kelly Busche, 1995. "The Application of Ranking Probability Models to Racetrack Betting," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(6), pages 1048-1059, June.
    33. S R Clarke & J M Norman, 2003. "Dynamic programming in cricket: choosing a night watchman," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 54(8), pages 838-845, August.
    34. S. Christian Albright & Wayne Winston, 1978. "A Probabilistic Model of Winners' Outs versus Losers' Outs Rules in Basketball," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 26(6), pages 1010-1019, December.
    35. Saltzman, Robert M. & Bradford, Richard M., 1996. "Optimal realignments of the teams in the National Football League," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 469-475, September.
    36. Audas, Rick & Dobson, Stephen & Goddard, John, 2002. "The impact of managerial change on team performance in professional sports," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(6), pages 633-650.
    37. K. T. Lee & S. T. Chin, 2004. "Strategies to serve or receive the service in volleyball," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 59(1), pages 53-67, February.
    38. Ribeiro, Celso C. & Urrutia, Sebastian, 2007. "Heuristics for the mirrored traveling tournament problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 179(3), pages 775-787, June.
    39. de Dios Tena, Juan & Forrest, David, 2007. "Within-season dismissal of football coaches: Statistical analysis of causes and consequences," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 181(1), pages 362-373, August.
    40. A. B. Philpott & S. G. Henderson & D. Teirney, 2004. "A Simulation Model for Predicting Yacht Match Race Outcomes," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(1), pages 1-16, February.
    41. Charles Fleurent & Jacques A. Ferland, 1993. "Allocating Games for the NHL Using Integer Programming," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 41(4), pages 649-654, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simona Mancini, 2018. "Assignment of swimmers to events in a multi-team meeting for team global performance optimization," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 264(1), pages 325-337, May.
    2. Mancini Simona & Isabello Andrea, 2014. "Fair referee assignment for the Italian soccer serieA," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 10(2), pages 153-160, June.
    3. 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.
    4. Hwang, Joon Ho & Kim, Min-Su, 2015. "Misunderstanding of the binomial distribution, market inefficiency, and learning behavior: Evidence from an exotic sports betting market," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 243(1), pages 333-344.
    5. Flores, Ramón & Forrest, David & Tena, J.D., 2012. "Decision taking under pressure: Evidence on football manager dismissals in Argentina and their consequences," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 222(3), pages 653-662.
    6. A Ghoniem & H D Sherali, 2010. "Models and algorithms for the scheduling of a doubles tennis training tournament," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 61(5), pages 723-731, May.
    7. 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.
    8. Frick, Bernd & Barros, Carlos Pestana & Prinz, Joachim, 2010. "Analysing head coach dismissals in the German "Bundesliga" with a mixed logit approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 151-159, January.
    9. Antonio Samagaio & Eduardo Couto & Jorge Caiado, 2009. "Sporting, financial and stock market performance in English football: an empirical analysis of structural relationships," CEMAPRE Working Papers 0906, Centre for Applied Mathematics and Economics (CEMAPRE), School of Economics and Management (ISEG), Technical University of Lisbon.
    10. Costanza Torricelli & Maria Cesira Urzì Brancati & Luca Mirtoleni, 2014. "The impact of skill and management structure on Serie A Clubs’ performance," Centro Studi di Banca e Finanza (CEFIN) (Center for Studies in Banking and Finance) 14107, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    11. Claudio Detotto & Dimitri Paolini & J. D. Tena, 2018. "Do managerial skills matter? An analysis of the impact of managerial features on performance for Italian football," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 69(2), pages 270-282, February.
    12. Gerd Muehlheusser & Sandra Schneemann & Dirk Sliwka, 2016. "The Impact Of Managerial Change On Performance: The Role Of Team Heterogeneity," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(2), pages 1128-1149, April.
    13. Kaori Naritaa & J .D. Tenaa & Claudio Detottoc, 2020. "What Makes the Ideal Profile of a New Manager in Times of Adversity? Evidence from Italian Serie A," Working Papers 202031, University of Liverpool, Department of Economics.
    14. Claudio Boido & Mauro Aliano & Giuseppe Galloppo, 2023. "Top-flight European football teams and stock returns: market reactions to sporting events," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 47(4), pages 1041-1061, December.
    15. 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.
    16. M Wright & N Hirotsu, 2003. "The professional foul in football: Tactics and deterrents," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 54(3), pages 213-221, March.
    17. Janina Kleinknecht & Daniel Würtenberger, 2022. "Information effects of managerial turnover on effort and performance: Evidence from the German Bundesliga," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(3), pages 791-812, April.
    18. Adrian R. Bell & Chris Brooks & David Matthews & Charles Sutcliffe, 2012. "Over the moon or sick as a parrot? The effects of football results on a club's share price," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(26), pages 3435-3452, September.
    19. M B Wright, 2007. "Case study: problem formulation and solution for a real-world sports scheduling problem," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 58(4), pages 439-445, April.
    20. Luc Arrondel & Richard Duhautois & Cédric Zimmer, 2020. "Within-season dismissals of football managers: evidence from the French Ligue 1," PSE Working Papers halshs-02505315, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:60:y:2009:i:1:d:10.1057_jors.2008.170. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.