A Prediction Model for Sports Match Results – Part 2

Introduction

As outlined in the first post, this installment of the series will be about the model’s estimates and predictions. I will also touch on how to compare predictions between models. For all that to work, I will have to introduce a few mathematical definitions. In a similar way to the first post, I will give both an intuitive explanation of every concept and a mathematical explanation.


The Estimates section will begin with an explanation of how the model fits the data (with a few graphs to show the process of finding the estimates for last season’s NBA), followed by a brief introduction on Bayesian inference. Next, the Model Comparisons section will define the predictive likelihood of a model, and how to calculate it. I will also discuss a few different ways to compare predictions. Finally, in the Discussion section, I will offer critiques of the work presented in this post.

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A Prediction Model for Sports Match Results

by André Vizzoni

Introduction

In this post, I will introduce a prediction model that was the product of a research project that spanned four years (winning a few awards) and was the final project for my degree in Statistics. For those interested in the final project, here it is – though I warn everyone in advance that it is in Portuguese. The objective of this post, then, is to translate the most central parts of that project to English while, at the same time, talking about applications of the model to basketball data, since the original project used soccer data.

First, I will give an intuitive explanation of the model, with no equations or mathematical concepts introduced. Next will come the methodology section, where there will be a lot more maths and formal definitions. As such, people who are interested only on the intuitive definitions might wish to skip the methodology section). The idea behind this structuring of the post is for it to be understandable, both by laypeople and by people well versed in statistics. Finally, in the discussion section there will be a few summary comments, as well as a preview of things to come on this site.

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