"Judo is a combat sport with seven different weight categories. In this\narticle, we examined data from 1,902 men's and 1,400 women's fights at\nthe eight most prestigious judo tournaments during the period 2010-2013.\nUsing a single fight as the unit of observation, we found that the\nprobability for the favorite to win against the underdog in the men's\nhalf-lightweight category is significantly lower than in most other\ncategories. Moreover, in fights in which only European and/or Asian\njudokas participate, we found that the men's half-lightweight category\nis significantly more balanced than all other men's categories. For\nwomen, there is no consistent evidence that any one weight category is\nmore balanced than any of the others. Our results indicate that in\nchoosing the members of a national team, it is to some extent reasonable\nfor national coaches to select a lower ranked judoka in the men's\nhalflightweight category over a higher ranked judoka in several other\nweight categories. We also found that the home advantage increases the\nprobability of winning a single fight for both genders. This result\nimplies that it might be worthwhile for national judo associations to\nbid to host international tournaments in order to improve the world\nrankings of their domestic judokas."

"Purpose: To determine if there is a home advantage effect in combat sports (boxing, fencing, judo, taekwondo and wrestling) in the Olympic Games during the period between 1996 and 2012.Methods: This study analyzed the performance of United States of America, Australia, Greece, China and Great-Britain in this period, considering only boxing, fencing, judo, taekwondo and wrestling. Relative frequency was calculated considering number of medals won by each country as a percentage of the total number of medals disputed in these sports. A multilevel mixed-effects Poisson regression was used to estimate the incidence rate ratio (IRR) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) for the association of factor of interest as hosting country and country. In multilevel analyses, total number of medals disputed in each sport was included as the exposure in the models. As athletes in each sport changed over time, they were included as random parameters. All significance tests were 2-tailed, and p values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.Results: There was a home advantage effect for total number of medals [IRR = 1.97 (1.38-2.80); p < 0.001], gold [IRR = 2.62 (1.45-4.73), p = 0.001] and silver medals [IRR = 2.13 (1.09-4.17); p = 0.027] adjusted for the total number of medals disputed in each situation, country and sport. However, there was no effect for bronze medals [IRR = 1.40 (0.78-2.51); p = 0.267].Conclusion: This study provided evidence for the home advantage effect in combat sports during the Olympic Games disputed between 1996 and 2012 for total number of medals, gold and silver medals, doubling the quantity won when competing at home. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR"

"A recent letter sent to the Journal of Human Kinetics' editor (Gómez & Pollard, 2014) warned about a supposed methodology error in the calculation of home advantage in football leagues used in Saavedra et al. (2013) and took the liberty of modifying the research's data. The aim of this letter is to demonstrate that the evaluation system of the home advantage proposed by Pollard (1986) contains serious inconsistencies when applied to competitions which give three points for a win and one point for a draw, as it is the case of the UEFA football leagues in the 21th century ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR"

"Although the home team advantage is known to exist in many sports, there are nuances of the advantage that are less well understood. In this paper, we investigate various aspects of the home team advantage including changes in the advantage over time, the relationship of the advantage to the overall scoring rate and differential advantages within leagues. The analysis is mainly based on descriptive statistics and is confined to the home team advantage pertaining to the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association."

"In 2009, the International Judo Federation established a ranking system (RS) to classify athletes and to distribute the competitor quotas of the Olympic Games. However, the RS does not consider the home advantage. This issue has not been studied in judo, and its implications for the RS have not been determined. The objective was to verify the home advantage in judo in terms of winning a medal or the number of matches won. Therefore, 25 competitions that computed points for the RS in 2009 were analysed. Logistic regression analysis and the Poisson generalised linear model were used for the analyses, which included the relative quality of the athletes. The sample was composed only of athletes who had competed both at home and away. The odds ratio for winning medals was higher for athletes who competed at home for both males and females. The association between the number of matches won and competing at home was significant only for the male athletes. The home advantage was observed in the competitions that used the judo RS. Thus, it is likely that athletes from countries that host competitions using the RS have an advantage in terms of obtaining their Olympic classification."

"Objectives: Is the home advantage in individual sports comparable in magnitude and consistency to that in team sports? If not, is it nevertheless a major factor? The present paper reviews the literature to date with respect to these questions and augments it with original analyses where appropriate.Design: The review is framed and dominated by a design consideration, namely, that all major team sports play balanced home-and-away schedules, whereas individual sports rarely, if ever, do. As a result, it is necessary to take player quality into account in assessing home advantage in an individual sport. Method/approach: The paper begins with three individual sports (tennis, golf, and boxing) in which home advantage has been studied using available controls for player quality. It moves on to individual and team sports in the Olympics, where home advantage has also been studied with credible controls on player (country) quality. Studies are then reviewed in which player quality has not been controlled. Finally, data are presented for two individual efforts embedded in team sports (free throws in basketball and shootouts in ice hockey).Results: Subjectively evaluated sports such as diving, gymnastics, or figure skating usually show sizable and significant home advantages. Otherwise, occasional findings have been reported but they are not consistent within a sport, are generally weak, and often statistically unreliable.Conclusions: Except for subjectively evaluated sports, home advantage is not a major factor in individual sports, much less does it play a role in individual sports comparable to its role in team sports. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd."

"Home advantage in competitive sports is well documented despite some contradictory results. Previous studies have identified 5 main causes of home advantage in competitive sports: crowd, familiarity, travels, rules and territoriality. Moreover, several studies have proposed the influence of these factors over psychological and behavioral states in athletes, coaches and referees. The present review summarizes the available scientific evidences about home advantage in sport and tries to identify the environmental and psychological causes of this phenomenon."

"We use a measure of home team advantage (HTA) that allows us to examine its relative strength across dissimilar sports leagues. Our metric confirms the widely reported existence of HTA. We control for relative team strength, thereby allowing comparisons across leagues. We find the strongest HTA in the National Basketball Association, followed by the National Football League and Major League Baseball in decreasing order. Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd."

"Using game-level data, the authors estimate models of team success and\ntest for the effect of three specific factors on game outcomes in\nprofessional ice hockey. First, they estimate the home ice advantage and\nfind that much of it can be attributed to rules advantages for the home\nteam. Second, contrary to previous studies on momentum, the authors find\nsome evidence that game-to-game momentum has a positive effect on\nwinning. Finally, the authors test the impact of fighting on the\nlikelihood of winning and find that winning fights does not lead to\nwinning games."

"This study examines home advantage in American college football games from a multilevel perspective. It quantifies the extent and significance of that home advantage and examines how it varies between BCS and non-BCS teams as well as analyzing the relationship between home advantage and team parity. Our results indicate that home advantage exists for most teams and conferences. It equates to a 6 point advantage for home teams and a 3-point disadvantage for away teams when controlling for team strength and other predictors. It concludes that after controlling for team ability, non-BCS teams possess a stronger home advantage than BCS teams. Such a result is likely related to the greater parity among BCS teams which leads to a " choking under pressure " effect for them in closely played games."

"Home advantage is a pervasive phenomenon in sport. It has been established in team sports such as basketball, baseball, American football, and European soccer. Attention to home advantage in individual sports has so far been limited. The aim of this study was to examine home advantage in professional tennis. Match-level data are used to measure home advantage. The test used is based on logit models, and consistent specification is addressed explicitly. Depending on the interpretation of home advantage, restrictions on the specification of the model need to be imposed. We find that although significant home advantage exists for men, the performance of women tennis players appears to be unaffected by home advantage."

"This meta-analysis examined the home-field advantage in athletics, with an emphasis on potential moderators. The goal of this research was to quantify the probability of a home victory, thus only studies that included win–loss data were included in the meta-analysis. A significant advantage for home teams was observed across all conditions ( Mπ= .604); and time era, season length, game type, and sport moderated the effect. Furthermore, it was found that season length mediated the effect of sport such that differences between sports could be attributed to some sports having longer seasons than other sports. This research has implications for athletes, fans, and the media alike."

"The home advantage effect was investigated at a team and player level in Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League football using in-depth performance and disciplinary variables. Performance analysis revealed that the home team scored more goals, had more shots on and off target, had a greater share of possession, and won more corners than the away team. There was an opposite trend for disciplinary variables, with the home team committing less fouls than the away team, and receiving less yellow and red cards. There were home advantage effects at player level for goals, total shots, shots on target, assists, and yellow cards, as found in the team analysis. In addition, foreign players demonstrated a home advantage effect for goals scored, whereas domestic players scored an equivalent number of goals at home and away venues. Results are discussed in relation to the home advantage literature and wider implications for the sport."

"The issue of competitive balance is not normally considered in the study of home advantage. This paper focuses on home advantage, assessing and comparing it between seasons. The strength of the teams is estimated and linked with competitive balance. The results support that, in both the eighties and early nineties, the home advantage is more visible. After that, it tends to decrease. Meanwhile, competitive balance increases until the nineties and after that, the trend becomes unclear. The changes in the structure of the championship and the reward point system have affected the Portuguese league."