The Methodology of Officially Recognized International Sports Rating Systems

Ranking and prediction of collegiate wrestling

“…In addition to evaluating competitors based upon past performances, rankings may also be used as predictors of future outcomes. Stefani (2011) describes the use of athletic rankings for prediction, based on the assumption that the higher-ranked opponent is expected to defeat the lower-or unranked opponent. The question of accurate rankings is non-trivial.…”

“…While there is currently no empirical research on the methodology of ranking collegiate or Olympic wrestling, sports ranking systems have been well-studied in the fields of mathematics, statistics, and management sciences. Our research evaluates several existing wrestling rankings for predictive accuracy on the matches of the NCAA Championship Tournament, drawing upon earlier work from Stefani (2011), which surveys the rating systems of 159 international sports. Although the scope of analysis is limited to international (noncollegiate) sports, and focuses solely on systems with published ratings (a numerical value assigned to competitor or team) as opposed to rankings (ordinal placement based upon ratings), his method for evaluating the predictive accuracy of rating systems is utilized in this project.…”

“…This method is predicated on the assumption that for a system to be considered predictive, higher-rated opponents should defeat lower-rated opponents approximately 17% more often than random chance. It is from this premise that Stefani (2011) proposes the baseline of 67% accuracy for systems predicting win/loss outcomes (based upon 50% as a random prediction) that is utilized in this project. Although wrestling awards several victory types, matches result in binary win/loss outcomes.…”

Rating players in test match cricket

“…They are of interest in their own right (eg, Castrol Football, 2012;FA Premier League (FAPL), 2012;Federation International of Football Association (FIFA), 2012). A rating is a numerical value allocated to each player or team based on their contributions, while a ranking is the ordinal position based on the ratings (Stefani, 2011). Broadly speaking, the rating of teams in team sports and the rating of individual players in individual sports is relatively straightforward and well developed (eg, Stefani, 1977;Elo, 1978;Harville, 1980).…”

“…Broadly speaking, the rating of teams in team sports and the rating of individual players in individual sports is relatively straightforward and well developed (eg, Stefani, 1977;Elo, 1978;Harville, 1980). Recently, Stefani (2011) reviewed rating systems and discussed the three basic types of sport rating systems, namely, the subjective, objective and accumulative. Typically, objective rating systems use data on results to estimate competitors' strengths.…”