Re:Show HN: Football Prediction API
by rorygreig on Wednesday March 14, 2018 @02:12PM
(#16586953)
This seems too good to be true. If they could actually predict football results with better-than-random accuracy, then why wouldn't they just use this themselves to make loads of money on betting markets?
Re:Show HN: Football Prediction API
by boggio on Wednesday March 14, 2018 @02:52PM
(#16587278)
Well sure, but there are over 2200 games per month and less than 3-5% are the kind of games you are talking about. Super good team vs terrible team (assuming your local home town team is not Barcelona)
Re:Show HN: Football Prediction API
by bmlevy9 on Thursday March 15, 2018 @01:48PM
(#16594994)
69% is a huge number in terms of sports betting. Typically to be profitable you need to be in the 52% - 56% arena to be profitable, so this is significantly profitable
Re:Show HN: Football Prediction API
by dna_polymerase on Wednesday March 14, 2018 @01:22PM
(#16586483)
In Germany (one of the countries with long standing football tradition) it is called "Fußball" which splits into "Fuß" (foot) and "Ball" (ball). It makes much more sense than calling "American Football" Football, as in "American Football" the feet are less dominant than in "soccer" (where hand usage is actually a foul).
The name soccer came from Britain, not the US. It was used to differentiate Association Football (soccer) from Rugby Football (rugby). Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand all still call the sport soccer. Even in England, it continued to be a popular name for the sport until the 1950s.
Re:Show HN: Football Prediction API
by bostonpete on Wednesday March 14, 2018 @03:58PM
(#16587768)
> I know Americans call it soccer
Correct, and most native English speakers are American. That doesn't even account for Canada or Australia where it has also traditionally been called soccer.
The fact that the "F" stands for "Football" in the name of an organization with a French name seems irrelevant.
Re:Show HN: Football Prediction API
by notahacker on Wednesday March 14, 2018 @02:21PM
(#16587052)
I don't think many people likely to be interested in an association football API call it "soccer". They're marketing to that audience, not the minority of the world that assumes "football" refers to a gridiron sport.
Re:Show HN: Football Prediction API
by ubertaco on Thursday March 15, 2018 @08:08AM
(#16592086)
Because any good developer should, when presenting a product in an international market, consider i18n (which involves more than just "translate from language A to language B").
Re:Show HN: Football Prediction API
by kefir_cultist on Thursday March 15, 2018 @07:32PM
(#16597421)
Interesting but football is such a terrible sport to predict statistically outside of a few teams (the outliers) in each league. Kind of hope there would me tools out there to mess with play patterns and tendencies more than the actual result, I think that it would be actually useful plus such a resource paired with a decent analyst would net a way better prediction rate. But betting.jpg
Re:Show HN: Football Prediction API
by jxub on Friday March 16, 2018 @05:36PM
(#16604205)
>mess with play patterns and tendencies
Maybe you should get involved with Data Science, this field is all about playing with patterns (and hopefully finding a result), and even thinks like SVM's, random forests and genetic algorithms aren't really hard to grok and apply in that area.
There are some scientists involved with betting, but this field has really low profit margins IMHO. Personally, I view algorithmic trading as more interesting but YMMV.
I'm pretty sure I could predict Real Madrid vs. my local home town team with better than 69% accuracy, but that doesn't mean much
Long-term accuracy is 69%.
http://www.businessinsider.com/football-vs-soccer-map-2013-1...
In this case, especially because it's an international, but heavily American audience.
I know Americans call it soccer, but that is I assume because of American football, a sport no other country seems to play, or care about.
The name soccer came from Britain, not the US. It was used to differentiate Association Football (soccer) from Rugby Football (rugby). Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand all still call the sport soccer. Even in England, it continued to be a popular name for the sport until the 1950s.
Correct, and most native English speakers are American. That doesn't even account for Canada or Australia where it has also traditionally been called soccer.
The fact that the "F" stands for "Football" in the name of an organization with a French name seems irrelevant.
Maybe you should get involved with Data Science, this field is all about playing with patterns (and hopefully finding a result), and even thinks like SVM's, random forests and genetic algorithms aren't really hard to grok and apply in that area.
There are some scientists involved with betting, but this field has really low profit margins IMHO. Personally, I view algorithmic trading as more interesting but YMMV.