Determinants of Pay-Per-View Broadcast Viewership in Sports: The Case of the Ultimate Fighting Championship

Tainsky, Scott; Salaga, Steven; Santos, Carla Almeida

doi:10.1123/jsm.27.1.43

Cited by 32 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…The results found herein are consistent both with the work of Borland & Macdonald (2003), which demonstrated that short-run UOO (for example, as measured by a single sporting event) does not have a statistically significant impact on attendance and the work on SP in the broad sense (Rosen, 1981;Adler, 1985 andBoorstin, 1992), in team sports (Noll, 1974, Treme & Allen, 2011Jewell, 2015 andLewis &Yoon, 2016) and individual sports (Tainsky, Salaga & Santos, 2013;Reeth, 2013 andGooding &Stephenson, 2016). However, these findings do not substantiate the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis or the value of talent (as measured by knockout percentage or if the bout featured an Olympic medalist in boxing) as driving attendance demand for live boxing matches.…”

Section: Implications Of the Regression Resultssupporting

confidence: 84%

“…As there is on-going debate in the literature on sports regarding fan identification as "casual" vis-à-vis "hardcore," an analysis of the impact of UOO, SP, talent and PPV buys in professional boxing, in keeping with the study of PPV in the Ultimate Fighting Championships by Tainsky, S. Salaga, S. and Santos, C. (2013), would push the analysis provided even further. Samra and Wos (2014, p. 265) provide three characteristics of the hardcore fan -with the word "fan" being used here in its traditional sense, in keeping with its root word: "fanatic" 1).…”

Section: Implications For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Outcome Uncertainty, the Superstar Effect, Talent and Live Attendance in Professional Boxing

Chaplin¹,

Madrigal²,

Magueta³

2017

AJSPO

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The relationship between outcome uncertainty, the superstar effect, talent and live attendance at professional boxing matches is analyzed for forty-three contests. The implied probability the underdog will win (taken from bookmaker odds) is used to model outcome uncertainty, while the time-adjusted average number of Twitter Followers of the combatants in a given boxing match is employed as a proxy for the superstar effect. Utilizing a log-log multivariate regression model (with live attendance as the dependent variable and explanatory variables of outcome uncertainty, the superstar effect, average knockout percentage and a dichotomous variable to capture if one or both combatants is an Olympic Medalist), we find only the superstar effect to have a statistically-significant impact on live attendance for professional boxing matches. These findings support recent evidence from English Premier League Football, the Italian Football League (Serie A and B), U.S. Major League Soccer and the U.S. National Basketball Association that star power is a critical determinant of live attendance and television viewership in professional sports. While owners, managers and marketers go to great lengths to promote competitive balance as a means of generating and maintaining fan interest, the aforementioned findings indicate that greater emphasis should be focused on highlighting the quality of the athletes themselves and, more broadly, their celebrity status.

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Section: Implications Of the Regression Resultssupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Implications For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outcome Uncertainty, the Superstar Effect, Talent and Live Attendance in Professional Boxing

Chaplin¹,

Madrigal²,

Magueta³

2017

AJSPO

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“…Most of the academic researches done on PPV was based on team sports such as basketball and football [6], and little is done on individual sports. Even when available, emphasis and objectives are on the economic drivers of PPV events.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even when available, emphasis and objectives are on the economic drivers of PPV events. The selected economic drivers are intense rivalry among the competitors, star power, adequate promotion of main events, event posters, spicy scripted storylines, interesting stipulations, fan preferences, outcome uncertainty, unexpected comebacks, scheduling preferences and so on [6,[7][8]. The analysis of the frequency of title outcomes (champions/titleholders retaining or losing their titles) has not been investigated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Statistical Analysis of Championship Matches Outcomes in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Pay-Per-View Events

Okagbue*,

Bishop,

Opanuga

et al. 2020

IJRTE

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WWE Pay per view events features championship or title matches where WWE branded and coveted titles are hotly contested. This paper presents the analysis of the frequency of winnings in WWE PPV events from the year January 2000 to February 2019. Some definite criteria were applied to the raw data to ensure that the outcome was either a champion win or lose. Champions of any official titles of the WWE have retained their titles in 664 (63.78%) occasions of the PPV events, while new champions have emerged on 377 (36.22%) occasions. It was also observed that it is only in 14 (5.3%) that any of 266 PPV events were shown without at least a champion win while 59 (22.2%) of the PPV events have been shown without witnessing at least a champion lose. In conclusion, it appears that PPV events often favored the reigning champions and the probability of champions losing their titles and new champions emerging is small.

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“…In mixed martial arts (MMA), much of the literature has examined the determinants of pay-per-view (PPV) demand or event attendance (Tainsky et al 2012;Watanabe 2012;Tainsky et al 2013;Watanabe 2015;Reams and Shapiro 2017), while Collier et al (2012) and Gift (2018) analyzed MMA judges with Gift finding that judges tend to show favoritism towards larger betting favorites, those with insurmountable leads, and the fighter who won the previous round. Finally, in boxing, where fighter compensation is contracted in advance and performance and win bonuses are not utilized, Tenorio (2000) found suggestive evidence, through examination of successful title defenses, to argue for a moral hazard in effort exertion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance Bonuses and Effort: Evidence from Fight Night Awards in Mixed Martial Arts

Gift¹

2019

IJFS

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This paper investigates the role of fight night bonus awards on fighter behavior in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and World Extreme Cage (WEC) fighting mixed martial arts (MMA) promotions. Behavior is analyzed using detailed fighter performance statistics, exploiting variation in bonus size across events and over time. Findings suggest that fighters are not meaningfully influenced by bonus levels within the range observed in the sample period and possible explanations are discussed. Fight night bonuses appear to serve as a lottery compensation mechanism to ex post reward performances consistent with an MMA promotion’s desires rather than ex ante incentivize such performances. Findings have implications for strategic MMA promoter decisions and contribute more broadly to the personnel economics literature on incentives and compensation.

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Determinants of Pay-Per-View Broadcast Viewership in Sports: The Case of the Ultimate Fighting Championship

Cited by 32 publications

References 48 publications

Outcome Uncertainty, the Superstar Effect, Talent and Live Attendance in Professional Boxing

Outcome Uncertainty, the Superstar Effect, Talent and Live Attendance in Professional Boxing

Statistical Analysis of Championship Matches Outcomes in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Pay-Per-View Events

Performance Bonuses and Effort: Evidence from Fight Night Awards in Mixed Martial Arts

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