Difference in Competition Intensity between Simultaneous and Sequential Contests: An Empirical Analysis

This study examines theoretically and empirically how different contest structures, particularly, simultaneous or sequential decision of contestants, impact competition intensity when contestants are heterogenous. The main goal of this paper is to provide the first empirical comparison of competition intensity with simultaneous and sequential movers with data from the field. We use a unique data set from the winter sports discipline biathlon which enables us to compare the same contestants in simultaneous and sequential contest formats. We show, that the theoretically derived result of a higher competition intensity in a simultaneous contest compared to a sequential contest holds in the field.