2025/06/10 by Philip Greengard, Greengard, Philip, Samer Takriti +1
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Medicine · Psychology · #Applications (stat.AP) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Sport Psychology and Performance #Sports Analytics and Performance #Sports Performance and Training
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.09287
openalex publication_date 2025/06/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We estimate the effect of playing in one's home country in professional squash using a Bayesian hierarchical model applied to men's and women's Professional Squash Association matches from 2018-2024. The model incorporates players' world rankings and whether they are competing in their home country. Using margin of victory in games as our outcome, we estimate that home advantage adds 0.4 games for men and 0.3 games for women to the expected margin, with standard errors of 0.1. For evenly matched players, this effect corresponds to an increase in win probability from 50% to roughly 58% for men and 56% for women. We estimate particularly strong home effects in Egypt, where many major tournaments are held, though data limitations prevent precise estimation of country-specific effects in many other nations.