BidIndex – the Olympic bid rating system developed by GamesBids.com and used to measure an Olympic bid’s potential for success – will have its 2014 edition premiered February 28, 2006.
The widely acclaimed mathematical model has been used to gauge the 2008, 2010 and 2012 Olympic bid campaigns and accurately illustrated whether a short-listed bid was one of the leaders, or just an also-ran.
This complex model is a result of months of research and development by analysts with expertise in statistics, mathematics and the Olympic Bid process. Information for BidIndex is obtained from both public and inside sources as well as GamesBids.com’s extensive Olympic bid archive.
While it is impossible for anyone to know which city will win a bid, BidIndex combines the current geopolitical and technical status of a bid and projects how it might compete based on past voting patterns. Since the IOC does not always pick the best quality bid, BidIndex does not predict the winner or rank the bids. It is designed to measure how closely each bid compares with past successful bids.
“I think there will be a few surprises this time around” explained Rob Livingstone, Producer of GamesBids.com.
“The quality of the bidding process has improved a great deal and more information has been made available. This helps the accuracy of BidIndex and produces more interesting results.”
In the past three bidding cycles, all of the eventual winners had received high BidIndex ratings at the onset of their campaigns.
Almaty Kazakhstan, Borjomi Georgia, Jaca Spain, PyeongChang South Korea, Salzburg Austria, Sochi Russia and Sofia Bulgaria have already submitted applications and their preliminary plans to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC will select a smaller list of candidates in June and make their final decision July 7, 2007 in Guatemala City.
BidIndex has inspired imitations but none can match the history, research and depth of analysis that goes into this rating system that has been developed by long-time professionals in the sports event bidding industry.
BidIndex was reviewed in the March 2004 edition of Significance Magazine, a publication by the Royal Statistical Society.
Full pre-release BidIndex information is available on GamesBids.com.
