2019
THE QUESTION
In 2019, FIVB was looking for a new ranking system for national teams. In the former system, countries that participated in major tournaments earned points for the ranking and countries that did not participate did not. The number of points of a country on this ranking gave countries access to tournaments. This contained a principle of unfairness that did not contribute to the sporting and commercial quality of volleyball. For this reason, the World Volleyball Federation (FIVB) asked Hypercube to develop and introduce a new ranking.
HYPERCUBE’S RANKING
Hypercube designed a platform for this project on which both the old and the new ranking were visible. The old ranking was taken directly from the FIVB. The new ranking is based on the zero- sum system. The ranking has been determined on the basis of historical data for all 222 countries in the FIVB. A test case was then used, namely the Volleyball Nationals League, of which Hypercube updated the developments of both rankings based on the results of the matches on a daily basis. FIVBs’ policymakers observed the different results of both rankings. This convinced them of the value of switching to the new ranking and they decided to adopt it.
RESULT
The ranking has been successfully implemented for both men’s and women’s senior volleyball. These are published live on the website of the FIVB.
