How much of 'home field advantage' comes from the fans? A natural experiment from the COVID-19 pandemic
UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal
; 26(1):59-72, 2021.
Article
in English
| CAB Abstracts | ID: covidwho-2045923
ABSTRACT
Home field advantage has been a commonly discussed and researched topic in sports. How much of this advantage is due to the home team's supporters' physical attendance at the game where they might encourage their team, intimidate the opponent, and influence game officials? We utilize the unique natural experiment of the COVID-19 pandemic and consider the case of American professional (NFL) and collegiate (NCAA) football to examine this question. We measure how typical spreads, relative to home teams, changed in the 2020 season compared to their historical levels, and we determine that roughly half of what football fans and analysts consider to be home field advantage emanates from spectators. Generally, the betting market was rather accurate in its predictions of how football game results would change in 2020, during the pandemic, so that wagering strategies failed when based on the betting market possibly underappreciating or overcorrecting for home field advantage without fans.
Sport and Recreational Activities [UU625]; Social Psychology and Social Anthropology [UU485]; audiences; sport; ball games; coronavirus disease 2019; pandemics; American football; USA; APEC countries; high income countries; North America; America; OECD Countries; very high Human Development Index countries; United States of America; spectators
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Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
CAB Abstracts
Language:
English
Journal:
UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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