Have you ever wanted to know which teams have the biggest home-field advantage? Or the leagues where home-field advantage matters the most?
Our sister site Australia Sports Tipping now provides home-field advantage measurements for the AFL, A-League, English Premier League, IPL, NBL, NFL, NRL, Super Rugby and the T20 Big Bash League.
The tables measure the difference between each team’s home winning percentage (home wins / home games) and their away winning percentage (away wins / away games). The data can be filtered by date.
Below are some sample results.
League averages
The table below shows the difference between the average win percentage at home versus away for each league over the past five seasons. Note that the AFL and NRL data feature incomplete 2015 seasons.
| League | Home Win % Minus Away Win % |
|---|---|
| AFL | 11.3% |
| A-League | 18.1% |
| EPL | 16.8% |
| IPL | 8.0% |
| NBL | 21.0% |
| NFL | 15.0% |
| NRL | 15.6% |
| Super Rugby | 23.6% |
| T20 Big Bash | -6.0% |
| All Sports | 13.7% |
Given the distances involved in travelling across the Indian Ocean, it’s not surprising to see that home-field advantage is most important in Super Rugby, where the average home winning percentage is 60.9% compared to just 37.3% on the road.
Despite the unique dimensions of each team’s home stadium, Twenty20 cricket has the small home advantage, with the away team winning more fixtures than the home team in each of the last three seasons in the T20 Big Bash. This is likely due to the short duration of the league and the fact that teams feature international players who fly in and out for the tournament.
Biggest and smallest home-field advantages
The table below shows the teams with the largest and smallest home-field advantages for each league over the past five seasons. Note that the AFL and NRL data feature incomplete 2015 seasons.
| League | Largest | Smallest | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AFL | Geelong | 27.3% | Richmond | -5.8% |
| A-League | Central Coast Mariners | 24.8% | Western Sydney | 4.2% |
| EPL | Manchester City | 30.3% | Crystal Palace | 5.3% |
| IPL | Rajasthan Royals | 24.3% | Mumbai Indians | 1.5% |
| NBL | Townsville Crocodiles | 40.0% | Sydney Kings | 9.7% |
| NFL | Arizona Cardinals | 38.2% | Philadelphia Eagles | -12.3% |
| NRL | Manly Sea Eagles | 30.7% | Gold Coast Titans | -8.5% |
| Super Rugby | Bulls | 39.0% | Force | 5.0% |
| T20 Big Bash | Melbourne Stars | 15.0% | Adelaide Strikers | -26.7% |
Not surprisingly, the Super Rugby Bulls have one of the largest disparities between home and away form. They boast a 85.45% winning record at home compared to 58.18% on the road. The result makes sense given their advantage of playing at high altitude at home and the energy-sapping four-week tours they do of Australia and New Zealand. If you include data from 2009 onwards the difference becomes a whopping 42.52%, with a 82.14% home win percentage compared to 39.62% on the road.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, in the Big Bash League the Adelaide Strikers have won just 33.33% of their home fixtures compared to 60% of their away games.
View the home-field advantage tables for each league
Use the links below to view the home-field advantage tables for each league.