James Reade

James Reade is a Professor of Economics at the University of Reading, serving as the Impact Lead for the Department of Economics. He holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford and has been at Reading since 2013, previously lecturing at the University of Birmingham. His research focuses on applied econometrics, particularly in sports economics, with a keen interest in data-driven analyses of sports phenomena, including competitive balance, referee bias, and forecasting. He leads the Sports Economics Research Cluster and is affiliated with the Programme for Economic Modelling at the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) at the Oxford Martin School and the Research Program in Forecasting at George Washington University.

• Education: MPhil, DPhil (PhD), and Postdoc at the University of Oxford.
• Affiliations: Scorecasting Economics Blog, Sports Economics Research Cluster.
• Research Interests: Sports economics, applied econometrics, forecasting, and the intersection of sports and public health.

His work explores topics like home advantage in sports, the economic impact of sports events, and the efficiency of betting markets. Notable contributions include winning the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference Research Competition (2025) and analyzing the effects of empty stadiums during the pandemic on referee bias and match outcomes.

He supervises PhD students and teaches the Economics of Sport (EC325). His research also extends to broader economic issues like regional economic uncertainty and the long-term effects of health crises on workforce productivity.

Labs/Teams: Active in interdisciplinary collaborations, including the Reading Online Sport Economics Seminars (ROSS) and the Scorecasting project forecasting football match outcomes.