Trading activity is the same way. Individual pairs of bids and asks are zero sum, but the emergent behavior of the market is non-zero sum (liquidity, price disc

Trading activity is the same way. Individual pairs of bids and asks are zero sum, but the emergent behavior of the market is non-zero sum (liquidity, price discovery, efficiency, etc). Sure, one trader might lose, but the trade contributes a signal to the market, the effect of which is a gradual increase in overall value that benefits everyone. Categorically speaking, they are the same. The difference is one of degree: financial markets consist of many two-party competitions with material loss, and sports consist of multi-party or competition with non-material loss.