Exploring Home-court Advantage and Home Win Percentage Rates in American Basketball Leagues: A Gender-Centric Examination of WNBA and NBA Teams

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) are the premier professional basketball leagues in the United States of America. Home-court advantage (HA) and home win percentage (HW) are crucial factors that influence game outcomes. This study aimed to compare the extent of HA and HW between male and female teams in these leagues. Data were collected across 23 seasons from both leagues. For each team and season, HA (%) was determined as (total home wins / total wins) * 100, and HW (%) was determined as (total home wins / total home games) * 100. HA and HW were compared between sexes using the Mann-Whitney test. The analyses revealed no significant differences in HA (p = 0.731) and HW (p = 0.890) between male and female teams. These findings underscore the importance of further investigation to elucidate the mechanisms underlying these results, which may inform the development of evidence-based strategies to optimize HA and HW across both leagues.