Analysis of the advantages of playing at home in several female basketball leagues

Abstract

Home advantage for teams in professional women’s basketball is analyzed with special attention given to the need to adjust for differences in ability between teams. Five leagues are included: the Women National Basketball Association (WNBA) in North America and the national leagues of Spain, France, and Italy. Data for 5 seasons (2002-03 to 2006-07) are obtained. Home advantage is found to be lowest in the French league with 55% of games played being won by the home team. It is highest in the WNBA and Italy (both 60%). Ability, is found to have a strong negative relationship with home advantage (p<0.001 in all leagues). A method for adjusting home advantage for ability is described using linear regression. Using these adjusted values, there are no significant differences between any of the teams within any of the four leagues.