比赛 (bǐ sài) means a competition, match, or contest and can also function as a verb meaning to compete. 比 means to compare and 赛 means to contest or race. It covers sports matches (足球比赛, football match), academic competitions (演讲比赛, speech competition), and other contests. The measure word is 场 (chǎng) for a single match event: 一场比赛.