Finding Fair Draws for Incomplete Round Robin Tournaments

Sten Wessel; Frits Spieksma

Finding Fair Draws for Incomplete Round Robin Tournaments

Optimization and Control 2026-07-20 v1 Discrete Mathematics Combinatorics

Authors: Sten Wessel , Frits Spieksma

Abstract

In an incomplete round robin tournament, teams play against different sets of opponents. Given varying strengths of the teams, this raises a fairness issue. We establish the complexity of determining whether a fair draw exists under various scenarios involving the presence of pots (i.e., strength based groups of teams), teams coming from the same association, connectivity requirements, and others. We also show experimentally how fair incomplete round robin tournaments can be generated.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.17901,
  title  = {Finding Fair Draws for Incomplete Round Robin Tournaments},
  author = {Sten Wessel and Frits Spieksma},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.17901},
  year   = {2026}
}