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Abstract

The fans are the biggest part of the success of sports contests. The competitive equilibrium reflects uncertainty about the outcomes of professional sporting, which attracts the fans' interest. Thus, the competitive balance (CB) is one of the main issues in sports economics. The objective of this paper is to analyse and compare the CB of male (Liga Santander) and female (Liga Iberdrola) top division leagues of Spanish football. In particular, we consider two aspects of CB: the level of concentration and the level of dominance of a sample composed of six seasons (from 2012/13 to 2017/18). For the concentration analysis, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), the ideal HHI competitive balance and deviated HHI (dHHI) are calculated. To analyse the dominance level, the HHI of dominance (HHID) in terms of titles won and top 4 are calculated. The results indicate that Liga Santander (male) is more balanced than the Liga Iberdrola (female). However, these findings do not imply that Liga Santander is balanced. In relation to dominance in terms of titles won, Liga Iberdrola is much better than Liga Santander. However, in terms of the top 4 dominance, both leagues have presented the same results. In this sense, both leagues' decision makers must act to improve the competitive balance. In spite of the recent increase of media and attendance in the Liga Iberdrola, the lack of CB could be a serious handicap to it becoming a professional league.

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“…As this was the first comparative study on CB in roller hockey, there are no previous studies to interpret these findings. However, these results were not unexpected as the available literature in other sports also shows evidence of greater CB values in men's leagues, as in football, where Zambom-Ferraresi et al (2018)analysed the CB effect in Spanish First Division football leagues (Liga Santander vs. LigaIberdrola) reporting higher male values.…”

“…One of them, as it happens with other sports, is that the female clubs' sections which have a professional male team,are benefitted by the infrastructure and staff of the male section. This phenomenon could be called "drag effect" (Zambom-Ferraresi et al, 2018), and provides a great advantage for some female clubs respect to the others which don't have a male section. Another aspect that should be taking into account would be the tradition and story of a club, normally related to the male section.…”

“…Previous research in CB has mainly focused on male athletes, and few studies have been devoted to comparing this phenomenon in men's and women's competition, although some of them report a lower equilibrium in women' competition (Zambom-Ferraresi, García-Cebrián, & Lera-López, 2018).…”

Comparing competitive balance between genders in team sports

“…The win dispersion dimension concerns within-season competitive balance. Studies drawing on this dimension find women's football leagues to have a significantly weaker competitive balance than the corresponding men's leagues in all Scandinavian leagues (Norway, Sweden, and Denmark) (Kringstad, 2018) and in Spain (Zambom-Ferraresi et al, 2018). Kringstad (2018) suggests that applying the same structural rules (e.g.…”

“…the size of the goals) to genders, which in general have different physical capabilities, may be a reason for weaker competitive balance among women's leagues. For Spanish football, Zambom-Ferraresi et al (2018) propose another explanation in that resources are concentrated in a way where synergies from the men's teams (same club) are a driver. Further, the calculations presented in Haugen and Guvåg (2018) seem to find similar results when it comes to win dispersion in men's and women's football in several European football leagues.…”