The Eco­nom­ics of Sports

Course content

The aim of this course is to understand the economic aspects of professional sports. Sport represents a significant part of the GDP in most OECD countries and involves several important issues which can be answered employing the basic principles of business, economics and econometrics.
The structure of this course could be divided into three parts. The first part of the course will analyse the demand for sports and the composition of team and league revenues. The organization of leagues, tickets and revenues, advertising and the role played by media will be studied. The second part will deal with the labor markets in professional sports - in particular, how players’ salaries are determined and how they impact on competitive balance and accounting. Finally, the third part will show new issues that are affecting professional sports, such as gambling, cheating and doping.
 
Outline of the course

1. The industrial organization of sports: Financial and account aspects

• Team revenues and the demand for sports
• Media and TV rights
• Marketing and advertisement

 2. Labor markets in professional sports:

• Contracts and sport agents
• Players’s salaries, discrimination players as superstars and tax considerations

3. New issues:

• Betting markets
• Cheating and corruption
• Doping.