A statistical view on team handball results: home advantage, team   fitness and prediction of match outcomes
  We analyze the results of the German Team Handball Bundesliga for ten seasons in a model-free statistical time series approach. We will show that the home advantage is nearly negligible compared to the total sum of goals. Specific interest has been spent on the time evolution of the team fitness expressed in terms of the goal difference. In contrast to soccer, our results indicate a decay of the team fitness values over a season while the long time correlation behavior over years is nearly comparable. We are able to explain the dominance of a few teams by the large value for the total number of goals in a match. A method for the prediction of match winners is presented in good accuracy with the real results. We analyze the properties of promoted teams and indicate drastic level changes between the Bundesliga and the second league. Our findings reflect in good agreement recent discussions on modern successful attack strategies. 
Jens Smiatek and Andreas Heuer
stat.OT physics.data-an physics.soc-ph stat.AP