Variations in home advantage in the National Basketball Leagues of Europe

Home advantage is a well established phenomenon in basketball, but little is known about its variability among different countries. The purpose of the study was to compare the magnitude of the home advantage in the national basketball leagues of Europe. Thirty-five countries were included and the final standings of league tables for the three seasons 2009-10 to 2011-12 analyzed, a total of 17,099 games. The advantage was highest in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, where over 70% of games were won by the home team, well above the mean for all countries (60.7%). After controlling for variations in the competitive balance of each league, as well as for proxy variables representing crowd size and travel distance, home advantage in the 10 Balkan countries was found to be significantly higher than elsewhere (p<0.001). This Balkan effect added an estimated 5.1 percentage points to the home advantage. The pattern of results was very similar to a prior comparable study for football in Europe (overall average 61%), with a correlation between the football and basketball home advantage values of r=+.516. The explanation suggested for football is likely to apply also to basketball. That is, the effect on players, crowds and referees of an increased sense of territorial protection in Balkan countries due to the long history of conflict in the region, deep ethnic and religious rivalries and mistrust of outsiders, all heightened by the mountainous terrain and the isolation of many locations.