Tournament Design: How Operations Research Can Improve Sports Rules.
Part of the Palgrave Pivots in Sports Economics book series (PAPISE). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, Switzerland, 2021.
Book review by Zsombor Szádoczki (in Hungarian)
Tournament design: On the role of tournament design in sporting success: A study of the North, Central American and Caribbean qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
In: Dominicy, Y. and Ley, C.: Statistics Meets Sports: What Can We Learn from Sports Data. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, 2023. ISBN: 978-1-5275-9273-5. pp. 153-174.
Ranking matters: Does the new format select the best teams for the knockout phase in the UEFA Champions League?. With Karel Devriesere, Dries Goossens, András Gyimesi, Roel Lambers and Frits Spieksma. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, in press.
Increasing competitiveness by imbalanced groups: The example of the 48-team FIFA World Cup. With András Gyimesi. European Journal of Operational Research, in press.
Competitive balance in the UEFA Champions League group stage: Novel measures show no evidence of decline. With Dóra Gréta Petróczy. Annals of Operations Research, 352(1-2): 105-120.
Trends and directions of preference elicitation and assessment is food science: Single-, pair-, and multi-criteria ranking methods. With László Sipos, Zsófia Galambosi, Péter Biró, Péter Biró and Sándor Bozóki. Food Science & Nutrition, 13(8): e70684, 2025.
Misaligned incentives in sports: A mathematical analysis of the post-2024 UEFA Champions League qualification. With Sergey Ilyin. IMA Journal of Management Mathematics, 36(3): 579-591, 2025.
How to measure consumer's inconsistency in sensory testing? With László Sipos, Kolos Csaba Ágoston, Péter Biró and Sándor Bozóki. Current Research in Food Science, 10: 100982, 2025.
The fairness of the group draw for the FIFA World Cup. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 20(2): 554-567, 2025.
The logarithmic least squares priorities and ordinal violations in the best-worst method. Expert Systems with Applications, 265: 125966, 2025.
Tournament design: A review from an operational research perspective. With Karel Devriesere and Dries Goossens. European Journal of Operational Research, 324(1): 1-21.
Trust and reputation systems for production networks. With Ádám Szaller, Sándor Bozóki, Péter Egri, Zsombor Szádoczki and József Váncza. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 58(19): 893-898, 2024.
A clustering approach for pairwise comparison matrices. With Kolos Csaba Ágoston and Sándor Bozóki. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 76(5): 971-983, 2025.
Mitigating the risk of tanking in multi-stage tournaments. Annals of Operations Research, 344(1): 135-151, 2025.
On head-to-head results as tie-breaker and consequent opportunities for collusion. IMA Journal in Managament Mathematics, 36(2): 215-230.
The allocation of FIFA World Cup slots based on the ranking of confederations. With László Marcell Kiss and Zsombor Szádoczki. Annals of Operations Research, 344(1): 153-173, 2025.
Bibliometric indices as a measure of performance and competitive balance in the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League. With Dóra Gréta Petróczy. Central European Journal of Operations Research, 32(4): 961-988, 2024.
Club coefficients in the UEFA Champions League: Time for shift to an Elo-based formula. International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 24(2): 119-134, 2024.
A lexicographically optimal completion for pairwise comparison matrices with missing entries. With Kolos Csaba Ágoston. European Journal of Operational Research, 314(3): 1078-1086, 2024.
How to choose a completion method for pairwise comparison matrices with missing entries: An axiomatic result. International Journal of Approximate Reasoning, 164: 109063, 2024.
Tournament schedules and incentives in a double round-robin tournament with four teams. With Roland Molontay and József Pintér. International Transactions in Operational Research, 31(3): 1486-1514, 2024.
Right-left asymmetry of the eigenvector method: A simulation study. European Journal of Operational Research, 313(2): 708-717, 2024.
On the coincidence of optimal completions for small pairwise comparison matrices with missing entries. With Kolos Csaba Ágoston and Sándor Bozóki. Annals of Operations Research, 333(1): 239-247, 2024.
The unfairness of the revenue distribution system used in the UEFA club competitions. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 15(1): 187-192, 2023.
A paradox of tournament seeding. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 18(4): 1277-1284, 2023.
How to avoid uncompetitive games? The importance of tie-breaking rules. European Journal of Operational Research, 307(3): 1260-1269, 2023.
A comparative study of scoring systems by simulations. Journal of Sports Economics, 24(4): 526-545, 2023.
Group draw with unknown qualified teams: A lesson from the 2022 FIFA World Cup. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 18(2): 539-551, 2023.
Quantifying the unfairness of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 18(1): 183-196, 2023.
The effects of draw restrictions on knockout tournaments. Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, 18(4): 227-239, 2022.
Fairness in penalty shootouts: Is it worth using dynamic sequences?. With Dóra Gréta Petróczy. Journal of Sports Sciences, 40(12): 1392-1398, 2022.
The efficacy of tournament designs. With Balázs R. Sziklai and Péter Biró. Computers & Operations Research, 144: 105821, 2022.
How to design a multi-stage tournament when some results are carried over?. OR Spectrum, 44(3): 683-707, 2022.
UEFA against the champions? An evaluation of the recent reform of the Champions League qualification. Journal of Sports Economics, 23(8): 991-1016, 2022.
Quantifying incentive (in)compatibility: A case study from sports. European Journal of Operational Research, 302(2): 717-726, 2022.
Inconsistency thresholds for incomplete pairwise comparison matrices. With Kolos Csaba Ágoston. Omega, 108: 102576, 2022.
A winner of Omega Best Paper Award 2022.
Coronavirus and sports leagues: obtaining a fair ranking when the season cannot resume. IMA Journal of Management Mathematics, 32(4): 547-560, 2021.
Revenue allocation in Formula One: a pairwise comparison approach. With Dóra Gréta Petróczy. International Journal of General Systems, 50(3): 243-261, 2021.
On the monotonicity of the eigenvector method. With Dóra Gréta Petróczy. European Journal of Operational Research, 292(1): 230-237, 2021.
A simulation comparison of tournament designs for the World Men's Handball Championships. International Transactions in Operational Research, 28(5): 2377-2401, 2021.
A comparison of penalty shootout designs in soccer. 4OR, 19(2): 183-198, 2021.
University rankings from the revealed preferences of the applicants. With Csaba Tóth. European Journal of Operational Research, 286(1): 309-320, 2020.
The UEFA Champions League seeding is not strategy-proof since the 2015/16 season. Annals of Operations Research, 292(1): 161-169, 2020.
Optimal tournament design: Lessons from the men's handball Champions League. Journal of Sports Economics, 21(8): 848-868, 2020.
The incentive (in)compatibility of group-based qualification systems. International Journal of General Systems, 49(4): 374-399, 2020 .
Two issues of the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 12(3): 471-484, 2020.
When neither team wants to win: A flaw of recent UEFA qualification rules. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 15(4): 526-532, 2020.
A characterization of the Logarithmic Least Squares Method. European Journal of Operational Research, 276(1): 212-216, 2019.
Axiomatizations of inconsistency indices for triads. Annals of Operations Research, 280(1-2): 99-110, 2019.
UEFA Champions League entry has not satisfied strategyproofness in three seasons. Journal of Sports Economics, 20(7): 975-981, 2019.
Journal ranking should depend on the level of aggregation. Journal of Informetrics, 13(4): 100975, 2019.
An impossibility theorem for paired comparisons. Central European Journal of Operations Research, 27(2): 497-514, 2019.
Some impossibilities of ranking in generalized tournaments. International Game Theory Review, 21(01): 1940002, 2019.
Characterization of an inconsistency ranking for pairwise comparison matrices. Annals of Operations Research, 261(1-2): 155-165, 2018.
Characterization of the row geometric mean ranking with a group consensus axiom. Group Decision and Negotiation, 27(6): 1011-1027, 2018.
Was Zidane honest or well-informed? How UEFA barely avoided a serious scandal. Economics Bulletin, 38(1): 152-158, 2018.
On the ranking of a Swiss system chess team tournament. Annals of Operations Research, 254(1-2): 17-36, 2017.
Measuring centrality by a generalization of degree. Central European Journal of Operations Research, 25(4): 771-790, 2017.
Eigenvector Method and rank reversal in group decision making revisited. Fundamenta Informaticae, 156(2): 169-178, 2017.
An application of incomplete pairwise comparison matrices for ranking top tennis players. With Sándor Bozóki and József Temesi. European Journal of Operational Research, 248(1): 211-218, 2016.
Incomplete pairwise comparison matrices and weighting methods. With Lajos Rónyai. Fundamenta Informaticae, 144(3-4): 309-320, 2016.
A graph interpretation of the least squares ranking method. Social Choice and Welfare, 44(1): 51-69, 2015.
Ranking by pairwise comparisons for Swiss-system tournaments. Central European Journal of Operations Research, 21(4): 783-803, 2013.
Inconsistency thresholds revisited: The effect of the graph associated with incomplete pairwise comparisons. With Kolos Csaba Ágoston. Latest update: October 2025.
Are penalty shootouts better than a coin toss? Evidence from international club football in Europe. With Dóra Gréta Petróczy. Latest update: Decmber 2025.
A hidden benefit of incomplete round-robin tournaments: Encouraging offensive play. Latest update: September 2025.
How to measure the uncertainty of a tournament draw: The case of European football's Champions League. With András Gyimesi, Dries Goossens, Karel Devriesere, Roel Lambers and Frits Spieksma. Latest update: October 2025.
How to optimise tournament draws: The case of the FIFA World Cup. Latest update: December 2025.
Attractiveness and equal treatment in a group draw. With Dóra Gréta Petróczy. Latest update: February 2025.
Most Swiss-system tournaments are unfair: Evidence from chess. Latest update: July 2025.
Voting power in the Council of the European Union: A comprehensive sensitivity analysis. With Dóra Gréta Petróczy. Latest update: December 2025.
Random matching in balanced bipartite graphs: The (un)fairness of draw mechanisms used in sports. Latest update: April 2025.
A note on the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 draw. Latest update: February 2023.
The optimal design of the group draw in sports tournaments. Latest update: May 2025.
Fair tournament design: A flaw of the UEFA Euro 2020 qualification. Latest update: February 2021.
When UEFA rules had inspired unfair behaviour on the field. Latest update: June 2019.
A mathematical evaluation of vote transfer systems. Latest update: October 2017.
Between plurality and proportionality: an analysis of vote transfer systems. Latest update: October 2017.
Distance-based accessibility indices. Latest update: October 2017.
Win three-sets sports: Game patterns, gender comparisons, and comeback analysis—A commentary. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 20(4): 1582-1583.
Correction to: Competitive balance in the UEFA Champions League group stage: novel measures show no evidence of decline. With Dóra Gréta Petróczy. Annals of Operations Research, in press.
Why does the 2022 FIFA World Cup need to be redone? SZTAKI: Innovation News. 1 April 2022.
How to allocate the prize money in Formula One? SZTAKI: Scientific News. 28 January 2021.
Scientific research becomes fruitful even in the design of sports rules. SZTAKI: Scientific News. 5 January 2021.
Penalty shootouts are unfair. Here's how they could be fairer. Euronews: View. 2 July 2018.