Fairness in Sports Workshop
12 June 2026
Budapest, Hungary
12 June 2026
Budapest, Hungary
The Fairness in Sports workshop aims to bring together academic researchers and practitioners with an interest in sports, and fairness issues in particular. Following its inaugural session in Ghent (2018), the subsequent edition in London (2018), and the third edition in Ghent (2024), the workshop is hosted now by the Hungarian capital, Budapest!
Fairness in sport does not only mean assigning the top prizes to the best competitors. It is also about the way the tournament itself is organised. How to design rules that do not favour certain competitors? How to design a schedule of play that offers similar chances to each participant? How to reconcile various, often conflicting design criteria?
The workshop focuses on scientific methods to improve fairness in sports, both from a theoretical and a practical point of view. Topics will include tournament scheduling and rule design. Methods will mainly include game theory, operational research, and statistics.
The workshop will be a 1-day event and will take place on 12th June 2026 (Friday). It is hosted by Corvinus University of Budapest.
Registration will open in 2026.
Ruud Koning is a sports economist from The Netherlands. He has published in different journals, and edited a number of reference books on sport economics. His main interest is the intersection of sport economics, econometrics and statistics.
Homepage: https://www.rug.nl/staff/r.h.koning/
Michael A. Lapré is an Associate Professor of Operations Management and Parker Family Faculty Fellow at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. His research interests focus on organizational learning, learning curves, sports analytics, and competitive balance in sports. His industry studies include steel-cord manufacturing, airlines, Formula One racing, the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Euro, and the National Football League. He currently serves as a senior editor for Production and Operations Management and an associate editor for Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports. His research has appeared in Management Science, Production and Operations Management, Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, and Journal of Sports Economics, among others.
Homepage: https://business.vanderbilt.edu/bio/michael-lapre/
F. Javier López is a Professor of Statistics and Operations Research at University of Zaragoza, Spain. His research interests include stochastic processes, extreme value theory, inventory systems and the application of operations research to the design and analysis of tournaments. He has published around 50 articles on these topics in journals such as Annals of Applied Probability, Stochastic Processes and their Applications, European Journal of Operational Research, and Annals of Operations Research.
Homepage: https://sideral.unizar.es/sideral/CV/francisco-javier-lopez-lorente
Mehmet Mars Seven is a lecturer in economics at King’s College London and has a diverse academic background. He holds a PhD in Economics from Maastricht University; during this time, he had the opportunity to work with game theorist and political scientist Steven Brams at New York University. Beyond academia, Mehmet is a chess enthusiast and leads the Game Theory Corner at Norway Chess. He is also a former professional backgammon player. His passion for games goes much further than just playing; he is intrigued by the multifaceted world of games and sports, exploring everything from theoretical foundations to practical applications.
Foto: Julia Basmann
Tim Pawlowski is a professor of sport economics at the University of Tübingen. He is co-founder of the Data Science and Sports Lab and currently serves as elected Vice Dean for Research of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences. His work was supported by research grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), UEFA, and FIFA. He was principal investigator in research projects conducted on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Institute for Sports Science, and Major League Soccer, and served as a guest speaker invited by institutions, such as the Council of the European Union, the Sports Committee of the German National Parliament, or UNICEF, as well as different clubs, leagues, and associations.
Homepage: https://www.tim-pawlowski.de/
Juan De Dios Tena Horrillo is senior lecturer in Sports Business and Management at the University of Liverpool Management School. His research focuses on the econometric analysis of sports behaviour, including competitive balance, managerial decisions, and the effects of rule changes in football. He has held academic positions in Spain, Italy, Chile, and Israel, and his works have been published in leading journals in sports economics and applied econometrics.
Homepage: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/people/juan-de-dios-tena-horrillo
Jan C. van Ours is emeritus professor of Economics at Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands and adjunct professor at the Center for Health Economics, Monash Business School, Melbourne, Australia. Currently, his research is focused on labour economics, health economics and sports economics.
Homepage: https://sites.google.com/site/homepagejanvanours/
Title: Performing under Pressure: Revisiting Penalty Shootouts
Abstract
A penalty shootout is a sequence of penalty kicks, i.e. 11 meters (12 yards) shots on goal with only the goalkeeper of the opposing team to prevent scoring. Penalty shootouts in professional football are interesting to study for various reasons. There is the question of whether or not ability matters. It could be that scoring a penalty is just a matter of luck. Furthermore, a first-mover advantage may or may not be important. Then, there is the question whether psychological pressure affects the outcome of an individual penalty attempt. Finally, there is the issue of whether the sequence in which a penalty shootout is organized matters. The current talk addresses all these issues in an analysis of penalty shootouts in Dutch professional football cup matches. We use data from about six decades finding that ability is not very important, there is evidence of a first-mover advantage, whereas under pressure penalty attempts are more likely to fail.
Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary
László Csató (Chair), Corvinus University of Budapest
Dóra Gréta Petróczy, Corvinus University of Budapest
Zsombor Szádoczki, Corvinus University of Budapest