Competitive balance in male european rink hockey leagues

The interest in competitive balance in different team sports has increased over time. However, hitherto, scant research has been conducted into minority sports, such as rink hockey. With these circumstances in mind, the primary objective of this study was to quantify the competitive balance in different European professional rink hockey leagues (Spain, Portugal, Italy and France) and to compare the results. The sample was comprised of 7,394 rink hockey matches (2,284 in the Spanish league, 1,996 in the Portuguese league, 1,794 in the Italian league and 1,320 in the French league) played between the 2009-2010 and 2018-2019 seasons. To determine competitive balance, the Accumulated Points Difference (APD) was calculated and a One Way ANOVA followed by the Tukey Post Hoc multiple comparison test was used. The results showed that the French league is the most balanced championship (68.94% ± 6.39), followed by the Spanish league (71.93% ± 10.77). The Portuguese (75.31% ± 5.48) and Italian leagues (75.16% ± 8.55) presented higher APD values, indicating that some teams enjoyed a more significant advantage. The analysis of competitive balance could provide a better understanding of this effect in rink hockey. This metric can help coaches and practitioners to tailor training programs better and also help governing bodies to understand competitive parity in every European league. In this regard, in some cases, changes may need to be made to the format of the competition to make it more balanced.