The most common indices of competitive balance have not been derived within the context of European football leagues. Domestic championships are multi-prize tournaments as opposed to common North American ones with a single prize. In addition to the competition for the championship, the best teams also compete to qualify for the lucrative European tournaments whereas the worst teams struggle to avoid relegation. This article introduces specially designed indices for measuring the level of competition for winning any of the important prizes awarded in the league as well as the development of the Special Concentration Ratio measuring the overall level of competitive balance by accounting the level of uncertainty for all prizes. This approach not only leads to a new perspective for the overall level competitive balance but also enables to determine its ingredient sources.
Keywords: competitive balance; concentration ratio; European football; English Premiership.
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