What makes Elite Leagues Professional? (¿Qué hace diferentes a las grandes ligas profesionales?)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12800/ccd.v15i45.1508Keywords:
Resources, competitive format, competitive balance, uncertainty, power law (Recursos, formatos de competición, balance competitivo, incertidumbre, ley de potencia)Abstract
Elite professional sport leagues are a global social-economical phenomenon. The fact that only few leagues achieve the elite category does not occur by chance. Four leagues from North America and five are European (NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, EPL, Bundesliga, LaLiga, Serie A y Ligue 1) were evaluated. In order to demonstrate that are these leagues, and no other, the most significant ones, we have utilised non-linear methodologies (Power Laws, Entropy and probability of success) which allow us to go deep in the aspects that we understand as the most relevant ones: access to economic resources, competitive format, and competitive balance. All these nine leagues have access to more economical resources (Total Revenue: €45.712 M mill/season 2015) than the rest of the leagues in the world, constitute huge social transcendence, accumulate the best players worldwide and their components are confronted under different competition formats (closed or open leagues), but are highly competitive (Normalised Entropy: 0.976-0.998 – Performance Differential: 0.0159-0.0611). We can affirm that the main professional sport leagues present specific profiles, compared to the rest of the leagues in the world. The availability of economical resources, the competition format, and the uncertainty related to the match and league results are the factors that determine if a professional sport leagues can obtain global relevance, attracting millions of supporters worldwide and significant economical resources.
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Las ligas deportivas profesionales son un fenómeno socioeconómico global. El hecho de que solo unas pocas ligas alcancen la categoría de élite no ocurre por casualidad. Se evaluaron cuatro ligas de Norteamérica y cinco europeas (NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, EPL, Bundesliga, LaLiga, Serie A y Ligue 1). Para demostrar que son estas ligas, y no otras, las más importantes, se han utilizado metodologías no lineales (Leyes de potencia, Entropía y probabilidad de éxito) que nos permiten profundizar en los aspectos más relevantes: acceso a recursos económicos, formato competitivo y equilibrio competitivo. Todas ligas analizadas tienen acceso a recursos más económicos (ingresos totales: 45.712 millones de euros/temporada 2015) que el resto de las ligas del mundo, tienen una gran trascendencia social, acumulan a los mejores jugadores del mundo y sus componentes se enfrentan en diferentes formatos de competición (ligas cerradas o abiertas), pero son altamente competitivos (Entropía normalizada: 0.976-0.998-Diferencial de rendimiento: 0.0159-0.0611). Podemos afirmar que las principales ligas deportivas profesionales presentan perfiles específicos en comparación con el resto de las ligas del mundo. La disponibilidad de recursos económicos, el formato de competición y la incertidumbre relacionada con los resultados del partido y la liga son los factores que determinan si las ligas deportivas profesionales pueden obtener relevancia global, atrayendo a millones de seguidores en todo el mundo y recursos económicos significativos.
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