Statistical Properties of Rankings in Sports and Games

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Morales, José Antonio, Flores, Jorge, Gershenson, Carlos, Pineda, Carlos
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2021
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author Morales, José Antonio
Flores, Jorge
Gershenson, Carlos
Pineda, Carlos
author_facet Morales, José Antonio
Flores, Jorge
Gershenson, Carlos
Pineda, Carlos
contents Any collection can be ranked. Sports and games are common examples of ranked systems: players and teams are constantly ranked using different methods. The statistical properties of rankings have been studied for almost a century in a variety of fields. More recently, data availability has allowed us to study rank dynamics: how elements of a ranking change in time. Here, we study the rank distributions and rank dynamics of twelve datasets from different sports and games. To study rank dynamics, we consider measures we have defined previously: rank diversity, change probability, rank entropy, and rank complexity. We also introduce a new measure that we call ``system closure'' that reflects how many elements enter or leave the rankings in time. We use a random walk model to reproduce the observed rank dynamics, showing that a simple mechanism can generate similar statistical properties as the ones observed in the datasets. Our results show that, while rank distributions vary considerably for different rankings, rank dynamics have similar behaviors, independently of the nature and competitiveness of the sport or game and its ranking method. Our results also suggest that our measures of rank dynamics are general and applicable for complex systems of different natures.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2111_03599
institution arXiv
publishDate 2021
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Statistical Properties of Rankings in Sports and Games
Morales, José Antonio
Flores, Jorge
Gershenson, Carlos
Pineda, Carlos
Social and Information Networks
Any collection can be ranked. Sports and games are common examples of ranked systems: players and teams are constantly ranked using different methods. The statistical properties of rankings have been studied for almost a century in a variety of fields. More recently, data availability has allowed us to study rank dynamics: how elements of a ranking change in time. Here, we study the rank distributions and rank dynamics of twelve datasets from different sports and games. To study rank dynamics, we consider measures we have defined previously: rank diversity, change probability, rank entropy, and rank complexity. We also introduce a new measure that we call ``system closure'' that reflects how many elements enter or leave the rankings in time. We use a random walk model to reproduce the observed rank dynamics, showing that a simple mechanism can generate similar statistical properties as the ones observed in the datasets. Our results show that, while rank distributions vary considerably for different rankings, rank dynamics have similar behaviors, independently of the nature and competitiveness of the sport or game and its ranking method. Our results also suggest that our measures of rank dynamics are general and applicable for complex systems of different natures.
title Statistical Properties of Rankings in Sports and Games
topic Social and Information Networks
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.03599