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50 years of OR in sport

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  • 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
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    5. Bergantiños, Gustavo & Moreno-Ternero, Juan D., 2022. "Monotonicity in sharing the revenues from broadcasting sports leagues," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 297(1), pages 338-346.
    6. Bergantiños, Gustavo & Moreno-Ternero, Juan D., 2020. "Broadcasting La Liga," MPRA Paper 104750, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Kendall, Graham & Lenten, Liam J.A., 2017. "When sports rules go awry," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 257(2), pages 377-394.
    8. Csató, László, 2017. "European qualifiers to the 2018 FIFA World Cup can be manipulated," MPRA Paper 82652, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. S R Clarke, 2011. "Rating non-elite tennis players using team doubles competition results," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 62(7), pages 1385-1390, July.
    10. Buraimo, Babatunde & Forrest, David & McHale, Ian G. & Tena, J.D., 2022. "Armchair fans: Modelling audience size for televised football matches," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 298(2), pages 644-655.
    11. 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.
    12. B. Jay Coleman, 2012. "Identifying the “Players” in Sports Analytics Research," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 42(2), pages 109-118, April.
    13. Martin B. Haugh & Chun Wang, 2022. "Play Like the Pros? Solving the Game of Darts as a Dynamic Zero-Sum Game," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 34(5), pages 2540-2551, September.
    14. Silvia Angilella & Sally Giuseppe Arcidiacono & Salvatore Corrente & Salvatore Greco & Benedetto Matarazzo, 2020. "An application of the SMAA–Choquet method to evaluate the performance of sailboats in offshore regattas," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 771-793, June.
    15. Collingwood, James A.P. & Wright, Michael & Brooks, Roger J, 2022. "Evaluating the effectiveness of different player rating systems in predicting the results of professional snooker matches," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 296(3), pages 1025-1035.
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    17. Alan T. Murray & Antonio Ortiz & Seonga Cho, 2022. "Enhancing strategic defensive positioning and performance in the outfield," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 223-240, April.
    18. 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.
    19. Michal Friesl & Liam J. A. Lenten & Jan Libich & Petr Stehlík, 2017. "In search of goals: increasing ice hockey’s attractiveness by a sides swap," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(9), pages 1006-1018, September.
    20. 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 1-8, June.
    21. Hvattum, Lars Magnus & Arntzen, Halvard, 2010. "Using ELO ratings for match result prediction in association football," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 460-470, July.
    22. Ahmed Ghoniem & Agha Iqbal Ali & Mohammed Al-Salem & Wael Khallouli, 2017. "Prescriptive analytics for FIFA World Cup lodging capacity planning," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(10), pages 1183-1194, October.
    23. 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.
    24. Mustafa Oguz Afacan & Nejat Anbarci & Ozgur Kıbrıs, 2022. "Arbiter Assignment," Working Papers 2022_02, Durham University Business School.

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