Elo rating is a system used to gauge chess players. You win/lose point depending on your points difference before a match. If the favourite loses, more points are lost to the underdog than if the underdog loses.
You can apply this to a wide variety of sports where most teams don't get to play most other teams, eg you can guess that Germany are better than India at soccer despite the rarity of the tie.
And of course you can modify the system to take account of various issues such as the retirement of better players, which tends to remove points from the system.
You can apply this to a wide variety of sports where most teams don't get to play most other teams, eg you can guess that Germany are better than India at soccer despite the rarity of the tie.
And of course you can modify the system to take account of various issues such as the retirement of better players, which tends to remove points from the system.