Kein Heimvorteil in der 1. Tischtennisbundesliga der Herren

A home field advantage is given when the home team wins more than half of the games under home conditions. For team sports, this advantage has been well-established in many studies. The present study examines the home field advantage for individual sports on the example of table tennis. Therefore, all games of the men’s first German National League of table tennis (n?=?406) were analyzed for the seasons 2008/2009 to 2012/2013. There was a home field advantage of 51.48?%. A more specific measure for the home field advantage is to look at single games (“best-of-five” modus), where the home teams won more games (2.01 per competition) than the away teams (1.95 per competition). Both results were statistically not significant. A statistically significant correlation between the size of the home field advantage and the number of spectators was found, as well as an advantage by competition rules of the home team in the opening game, whereas the travel distances of the away teams did not affect the results. Accordingly, the home field advantage is less pronounced in individual sports than in team sports. The player’s performance, however, is positively influenced by the social support of home spectators and the specific competition rules.