Even though betting exchanges are considered to be the superior business model in the betting industry due to less operational risk and lower information costs, bookmakers continue to be successful. We explain the puzzling coexistence of these two market structures with the advantage of...

In 2002 the leading European football clubs reacted to the increasing player salaries by signing a voluntary agreement to limit player salaries to 70% of revenues. We analyse under which conditions a voluntary salary cap agreement is self-enforcing. Based on a simple model of a league with two...

Based on the competing theories of superstar formation proposed by Rosen (1981) and Adler (1985) it is controversial if first hand observable talent or other factors like past consumption and popularity influence stardom. This article investigates the emergence of superstars in German soccer. We...

Media companies enjoy increasing marginal returns if more customers watch a program. The viewer drawing capability of stars serves as a prominent instrument to increase audiences. However, lately there has been a significant shift in the kind of stars employed by the media from “self-made”...

There is a well-established literature on separately testing the prediction power of different betting market settings. This paper provides an inter-market comparison of the forecasting accuracy between bookmakers and a major betting exchange. Employing a dataset covering all football matches...

We show that both talent and popularity significantly contribute to stars’ market values in German soccer. The talent-versus-popularity controversy on the sources of stardom goes back to Rosen (1981) and Adler (1985). All attempts to resolve the controversy empirically face the difficulty of...

Recent studies of the demand for sports clearly indicate that stars play an important role in promoting fan interest. However, on theoretical grounds it is controversial if a star's talent superiority and/or a star's popularity drive match attendance and hence increase gate revenues. Using...

There is a well-established literature on separately testing the prediction power of different betting market settings. This paper provides an inter-market comparison of the forecasting accuracy between bookmakers and a major betting exchange. Employing a dataset covering all football matches...

Existing studies about the determinants of the so-called couch potato audience in sports concentrate on the quality of the sporting contest which involves both the absolute playing strength of the competing teams and the relative evenness of the competition. Regarding national team competitions,...