Question

In the book Scorecasting, \({ }^{8}\) we learn that "Across 43 professional soccer leagues in 24 different countries spanning Europe, South America, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the United States (covering more than 66,000 games), the home field advantage [percent of games won by the home team] in soccer worldwide is \(62.4 \% . "\) Is this a population or a sample? What are the cases and approximately how many are there? What is the variable and is it categorical or quantitative? What is the relevant statistic, including correct notation?

Short answer

The data represents a population of approximately 66,000 soccer games, with the home field advantage being the quantitative variable of interest. The relevant statistic is the population mean of home team wins, represented as \(\mu = 62.4\%).

Step-by-step solution

Identify if this is a population or a sample

The data provided contains information about 66,000 games across 43 professional soccer leagues in 24 countries. Due to the broad nature of this data covering all main countries where professional soccer is played and a large number of games, it can be considered a population, not a sample, as it seems to not be a subset of a larger set of data.

Identify the cases

The cases in this study are the individual soccer games that have been played. Each of these games represents a separate case. Since we have data from 66,000 games, we can say there are approximately 66,000 cases.

Identify the variable and its type

The variable here is 'the home field advantage', which is defined by the percent of games won by the home team, given as 62.4%. Since this variable represents a percentage, it is quantitative because it can be measured and expressed numerically.

Identify the relevant statistic and its notation

The relevant statistic here is the home field advantage, represented as a percentage of games won by the home team. The percentage is a measure of central tendency, specifically the mean (or average) percentage of games won across all the leagues studied. In statistical notation, this could be represented as \(\mu = 62.4\%), where \(\mu\) denotes the population mean.