A matter of time? Measuring the efficiency of individual sports' tournament formats via a Monte Carlo Simulation

Abstract

The tournament format has a fundamental impact on the popularity and success of a sport. One of the underlying factors is efficiency. The efficiency of a format describes how well it can reproduce the real but hidden power ranking of the participants. If the spectators doubt that the winner is indeed the best among the competitors, they may turn away from the sport (cf. UFC vs. boxing).