A Comparitive Survey of Officially Recognized International Sports Rating Systems

Raymond Stefani
Californa State University, Long Beach

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     Last modified: January 29, 2011
     Presentation date: 03/13/2011 10:15 AM in NH 1130, Session B
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Abstract
Abstract

A comprehensive comparative survey is presented, covering official rating systems as published by internationally recognized sports federations. Mind sports and physical sports are both included. As of December 2009, competitions in 156 international sports are organized by sports federations recognized by the IOC, Sport Accord and by Wikipedia under “List of International Sport Federations”. Of the 156 sports, 17 are combat sports in which opponents are in direct physical contact as in boxing and wrestling, 73 are independent sports in which contact is not allowed as in swimming and archery and 66 are object sports in which indirect contact is allowed while opponents attempt to control an object as in basketball and chess. Of the 156 sports, 59 sports have no rating system, two combat sports have a subjective rating system, 82 sports have an accumulative system in which points accrue non-decreasingly over some window of time, and 13 sports have an adjustive system in which a rating self adjusts based on the difference between some observed result and a prediction of that result based on past performance. For accumulative rating systems, features include converting results to points, ageing results more than one year old, and adjusting points for performance quality. Such systems are favoured by tournament organizers who want to encourage many top competitors to enter as for skiing and tennis. The adjustive systems include Elo, probit and averaging methods. These systems are favoured for their technical sophistication by sports such as chess, draughts, go, cricket, and women’s soccer. This study thus examines the observed practical methods used by the various sports federations to provide acceptable comparative ratings.

Keywords: Sports, rating systems, Olympics, international sports federations, ELO, probit.