The impact of Covid on the results of sports matches: Have empty stands worsened the home teams record?

The impact of Covid on the results of sports matches: Have empty stands worsened the home teams record? | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The impact of Covid on the results of sports matches: Have empty stands worsened the home teams record? Petr Volf This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4311087/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The home advantage is a phenomenon having evidently a strong impact on results of sports matches. Therefore the ,,home advantage” parameter or component is standardly a part of statistical models describing (and forecasting) sports results. I will concentrate here to the soccer and ice-hockey, in particular the premier leagues in the Czech Republic, however this phenomenon concerns other sports as well. One initiator of this advantage is the presence of home fans. That is why the time of Covid pandemic, when at least one season was played without (or with strong limitation of) spectators, gives a chance to compare the ,,Covid” season with the others and, possibly, to discover a significant decrease of home advantage impact. This paper uses just rather simple statistical tools, nevertheless, with the aid of basic statistical tests the significant changes of home teams results (regarding both the gained points and scored goals) have been detected. The results are also compared with findings of several other studies dealing with the same theme. Applied Statistics Sports statistics home advantage football (soccer) ice-hockey Covid-19 pandemic spectators attendance Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4311087","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":294477726,"identity":"bdf8159e-97cd-4d21-ba8c-4ce9e6042716","order_by":0,"name":"Petr Volf","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAu0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFAC5oYPHxgYeEjRwtg4cwaDAYlaZvMwGJCgweB4Y2OzbdsfGf4G5ocffzDY2RPWcuZgY3NumwGPxAE2Y2kehmRmglokZyS2PwZpYTjAwyDNwHCAjRgtjc2WQC3yB3iYf/4AaSQE+CWAWhiBWgwO8LBJAO2SIKyF52BjY885Yx7Dw2xm1jwGyYTDjo29+WDDjzI5e7njzY9v/qggIsQQABxUpMTPKBgFo2AUjALcAAAfVjJohxu5BQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5673-6066","institution":"Institute of Information Theory and Automation, Czech Academy of Sciences, prague, Czech Republic","correspondingAuthor":true,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Petr","middleName":"","lastName":"Volf","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-04-23 09:55:17","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":true,"vertebrateSubjects":true,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":true,"humanSubjectConsent":true,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":true,"coiExplicitlySet":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4311087/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4311087/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":55208337,"identity":"c82abdd1-ff50-49c8-9bfe-9a623a0e8fa3","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-04-24 05:21:56","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":342030,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"paperVolf24.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4311087/v1_covered_0f5ea318-68c3-4136-addb-51e4d455462b.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eThe impact of Covid on the results of sports matches: Have empty stands worsened the home teams record?\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Sports statistics, home advantage, football (soccer), ice-hockey, Covid-19 pandemic, spectators attendance","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4311087/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4311087/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe home advantage is a phenomenon having evidently a strong impact on results of sports matches. 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