Competition in sports leagues: theoretical approaches

The article is aimed at overviewing theoretical researches on the analysis of competition in sports leagues. Supporters are treated as consumers in the market of sports services who values the unpredictability of results. The article contains a number of factors that influence the level of unpredictability, including level of talent in leagues, number of clubs capable to be on top places, and others. The first part of the article includes statistics to prove the fact of increasing competition between clubs of the major European leagues: more and more clubs compete with each other for prizes and European cup zone. There is a number of indicators to evaluate the level of competitiveness in sports leagues. Further the article contains classification of sports leagues and reasons of appearing rules that restrict competition, as well as a list of the main factors that cause market monopolization. There is also a review of several articles with models of competitive balance in sport. In the last part of the article issues for further applied researches on the topic of sport competition are listed on the basis of the results of theoretical review of sports economists in Europe and the United States.