There are many different types of sports data we can look at to maybe help us gain the upper hand when we’re predicting results or looking for the best possible opportunities to place a little bet or two. If we’re looking at predicting the outcome of a game of football for example, while it’s true that there isn’t really any guaranteed way to predict an outcome, there are ways we can gather an idea, we could look at previous games between the two teams involved, OR, we can look at recent results. Say one team is on a run of 5 wins and one is on a run of 4 losses, but the team with 4 losses has won the last 5 meetings between the two teams, it makes for an interesting predicament, right?
Sports data can be used to help coaches decide on the best training methods, or it can help you win money! Source: Tableau Software
Not only that, we can take a look at individual players’ stats, what if Team A, the team on the 5-win streak, has won 5 games 1-0, but their goals aren’t coming from their star striker? Maybe he’s in a rut and hasn’t been able to find the net. BUT, Team B has lost 4 of their last 5, but they have lost their games 3-2, 4-3, etc and their star striker has been banging them in for fun? These are the things we have to look at!
When a lot of people bet, all they’ll do is look at the teams involved, Manchester City Vs. Wolves? Yeah, most people go for Man City, while the odds won’t be great it’s a guaranteed win right? Well, you’d think so, but I actually in the past won a 52/1 treble (don’t forget to shop around for the best odds, sites like odds checker and SBR Odds will help you find the best site for you to get the most gains!) purely because I put Wolves on instead of Man City, why did I do that? Wolves had been playing well, Adama Traore was looking like a world-beater and past results between the two teams had me believing that Wolves truly had Man City’s number and you know what? They did! My only regret was not betting the house on it, but I’m a firm believer in betting within your means.
It’s all well and good knowing what kinds of data we can look at, but it’s now time to look at how we can use that data to our advantage? Well, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I once took the bold decision, according to many of my friends and regulars in the pub I work in, to put Wolves on a treble that featured Chelsea and Arsenal when they played Manchester City. The stats I used to my advantage were the following. In recent meetings between the two, it really felt like Wolves just had the key to beating Manchester City at the time, I’m not even sure what it was!
Adama Traore celebrating his winner against Manchester City, October 6th, 2019. Source: The Australian
Not only that, I’d noticed that at the time, City, while winning games, were leaking a fair few at the back, and not only that, but Adama Traore had been on fire, he was scoring for fun, bullying defenders with his pace and power and Ruben Neves was on this streak of scoring crazy goals, looking at the games available it just seemed like a no brainer to me that Wolves would get the win. So, what happened? Man, City struggled to break down a pretty solid Wolves team, with Conor Coady and Willy Boly holding down the backline and a Rui Patricio (still find it surprising that he is Wolves goalkeeper) was flawless on the day, late into the game Adama Traore was through on the counter-attack TWICE.
Now if we’d taken a look at all of the data, maybe we wouldn’t have chanced it by putting wolves on the treble, City were, as per usual, on a 5-win streak including an 8-0 win over Watford and a 3-1 away win over Everton, pretty big results, while Wolves last 5 included a 1-0 home loss to Braga and a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace. This is why you need to assess everything available to you and then select the things that are more relevant to your use case.
So that’ll do it for this one, hopefully moving forward if you didn’t already look at the statistics and data available to you, you will think about it now! Who knows, assessing each team involved in a game of football or hockey, or even assessing each fighter’s INDIVIDUAL strengths, or even tell you whether the horse you’re looking at is statistically going to do well on a certain ground condition! USE THE DATA GUYS *insert clip of Charlie explaining Pepe Silvia to Mac from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia* but most importantly, be sensible when betting people!