The Existence of Home Advantage in Volleyball

The Home Advantage term describes the significantly greater percentage of positive results over the negative ones when competing at home. Specifically in volleyball Federations organize national championships taking under consideration the existence of home advantage. The aim of this study was to investigate the existence, strength and consistency of the home advantage effect in volleyball since the implementation of the new regulations. Data were collected from all championships of the last decade in first division Italy and Greece for both men and women (6.681 games, 25.324 sets, 1.122.064 points). Statistical comparisons were performed with the chi-square test. Results revealed the existence of a very significant home advantage effect in Volleyball, which, moreover, exhibits a remarkable consistency throughout gender, country, regular season and play-offs and competition year. Home wins in games (58.1%), in sets (55.6%) and in points (50.86%) were significantly greater than the theoretically expected 50%. The only case when the home advantage was ineffectual was the fifth set of the 5-set games. Additionally a Markov-chain simulation was performed and confirmed that the observed distribution of the points won by the home and away teams would generate the observed distribution of the sets won by the home and away teams.