Soccer's scoring deficit leads to too much randomness

Great essay from an econ prof about randomness in sports. I’d never thought of sports this way before, but it’s true that basketball and tennis have so much scoring that an underdog victory isn’t worth waiting for, and hockey/soccer have so little scoring that a single blown call or brief burst of good fortune usually determines the outcome.

The author posits that baseball and football toe the randomness line perfectly, and I agree.