The probabilities of winning a racquetball doubles match motivate a fairer side-out scoring scheme for singles and team events

Peters James E. () and Peters Christopher J. ()
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Peters James E.: Department of Mathematics, Weber State University, 2517 University Circle, Ogden, UT 84408, USA
Peters Christopher J.: Department of Information Technology, University of Utah David Eccles School of Business, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, 2019, vol. 15, issue 1, 75-84

Abstract: We explore the probabilities of winning a best-of-three doubles racquetball match given the probabilities that each of the participants wins a point while serving. We restrict our attention to the cases where these probabilities are between 0.4 and 0.6 for all participants; in other words, the cases where all of the players are moderately evenly matched. In doing so, we find it sensible to suggest changes to the side-out scoring schemes in singles and in team events. These changes would cause each game played to be more fair while preserving the fairness of a match, for which there seems to be adequate impetus.

Keywords: fairer side-out scoring system; probability of winning a doubles racquetball match; probability of winning a racquetball match (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1515/jqas-2018-0085

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