Competitive Balance in the Portuguese premier league of professional soccer

Paper is under revision, pdf is not available. Competitive balance is what makes the sport becoming an attractive event. Contrary to other industries, a reduction in competition and a hypothetically dominant position could mean the end of the championship. If there is only one team, the criterion for league cannot be met. In this paper we consider the advantage of the team that plays at home and, using an ordered probit model, the strength for all teams is estimated. At the same time, is made an evaluation on the evolution of the competitive balance in the Portuguese premier league of professional soccer. The conclusions point that this balance has increased, but also the difference between the best team and the worst one.