What does 「～の ほうが」 mean in this sentence?

Question

サッカー　と　やきゅう　と　どちらが　おもしろいですか。

....サッカーの　ほうが　おもしろいです。

What is the meaning of the answer here?

Answer 1

It means that "soccer is (the) more interesting (of the two)".

You can use AよりBのほうがおもしろい to say that "B is more interesting than A". In other words, より marks the thing that is "less interesting" and ほうが marks the thing that is "more interesting". Note that either the より phrase or the ほうが phrase can be omitted and left implicit. In this case, that is what happened to より, like this:

（やきゅう　より）　サッカー　の　ほうが　おもしろいです

You can substitute other things for おもしろい.

わたし　より　たなか　さん　の　ほうが　せがたかい　です
Tanaka-san is taller than me.

Please see this page of Tae Kim's Guide for more information.