On the development of decision rules for bar quiz handicapping

D F Percy () and P A Scarf
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D F Percy: University of Salford
P A Scarf: University of Salford

Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2008, vol. 59, issue 10, 1406-1414

Abstract: Abstract Some competitions involve teams comprising different numbers of players. For informal games, such as the popular ‘pub quiz’, we argue that teams with fewer players are at a disadvantage. This paper investigates the properties of these games and develops several methods for allocating handicaps within such competitions, so that the competitions may be considered fair, based on a simple Bernoulli model for correctly answering questions and assuming exchangeability of participants. We recommend a natural conjugate prior subjective handicapping rule; with this rule handicaps may be set beforehand given the judgement of the quiz setter regarding the difficulty of the questions. We also describe a posterior rule that provides improved accuracy but is calculated after the quiz is complete. Finally, the paper considers modifications of the proposed rules to cope with multiple-choice questions and progressive quizzes.

Keywords: elicitation; games; probability; quizzes; subjective (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602487

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