Global differences in home advantage by country, sport and sex

The purpose of this study was to use a multivariate approach to investigate variations in home advantage between different team sports and between different countries both for men's and women's competition. The data were based on the domestic premier leagues of 15 sports in 65 countries worldwide, over a 5-year period from 2011 to 2015 with a total of 1952 league tables qualifying for inclusion. After controlling for differences in competitive balance between the leagues, a general linear model found significant differences between sports, between countries and between sexes. Quantifying home advantage as the proportion of total points won by the home team in a league, basketball and handball were highest for both men and women. For men, Bosnia-Herzegovina had by far the greatest advantage with other Balkan nations well above average. Rugby union in France was the domestic league in which playing at home provided the most advantage. The results suggested that the pace of a sport and the dimensions of the playing area might both be having an effect on home advantage.