Understanding Freakonomics Better - Sumo Wrestling Results

The national sport of Japan, Sumo wrestling, has been the favourite Japanese sport since ancient times.  The goal of the sumo wrestlers during the game would be to cause their competitors to go off balance or make them touch the ground with any body part other than the sole of their feet.  There are complicated methods in place through the Sumo Wrestlers are ranked in the sport.

Ranking Is Very Important For Wrestlers

Several Sumo wrestlers reside together and play to get a common team.  Ranking is extremely important for the Sumo wrestlers because their living standard depends on it.  The high ranking players also live inside the stables and are served by a low ranking Sumo who takes care of the housekeeping requirements.  The payment also varies which is dependent upon the difference in skill level between players.  There are total 42 top Sumo wrestlers in Japan who get unmatched fan adulation and lavish pay.  People who don't belong to this group, for them the treatment is dramatically different.

You Know This Too

The sumo wrestlers have to fight with different competitions to decide their rankings every 2 months.  In one tournament, 15 matches are played between the same competitions, and those who win majority of the matches, are considered to have won the entire battle.  Generally, the stronger players have greater chances of winning the matches (66 percent ) though when there is a link between these two players, the chances of this weaker player winning another game become substantially higher whereas another game (whenever it takes place) is won by the stronger player.

How Does It Operate?

In these cases, it appears the players have arrived at a secret agreement under which the stronger player agrees to lose the match since one loss will not take anything away from him, the weaker player, however, stands to gain substantially since he would reach the coveted 42 member elite team where the payments will be substantially greater because of him.  Exactly the same pattern is evident all across Japan which means the game goes through widespread cheating in these areas.

More Emphasis on Data

Just like other economists, Steven Levitt is concerned more about the data and he analyzes the data to death (to the point of boredom).  At times in the publication the authors tend to accuse different authors of things that they have done inadvertently themselves.  The basic mistake happens are precisely the same, but everything in life cannot be reduced to mere numbers.