Use of Artificial Intelligence in Football Betting
We are in an age where technology is ruling the world. A big example of this has been the minimal impact of the global pandemic on the digital world. In fact, with many of the traditional businesses shutting down, more and more institutional buyers as well as consumers have switched to digital solutions. One of the biggest fields in this industry — Data Analysis & Artificial Intelligence.
Although more frequently used, Data Analysis or Data Mining — all come under the same roof of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In a layman’s language, Artificial Intelligence is basically a collection of computer programs that make important decisions by analyzing the available data. This makes the lives of the key decision-makers easy so that they can focus on much bigger things in their work-life.
Why is Artificial Intelligence ruling the world?
Basically, it can be used everywhere. Right from analyzing the buying trends of people in super-markets, to making score predictions in sports. That’s right — Artificial Intelligence is actually breaking down data to analyze the fixtures in major sports like football, baseball and tennis, among a few.
Today we take a look at some already established, as well as uprising Artificial Intelligence technologies, which could be used in football predictions and betting.
The Opta Data
A few years back — Opta Sports, one of the biggest sports data collection websites, came up with a revolutionary analysis technique for the footballing fraternity. Opta built a machining language which took into account millions of football matches that have been played till date and uses the concept of probability to make predictions. They named this technology as ‘Expected Statistics’. It’s been divided into various sub-branches since, such as Expected Goals (xG), Expected Assists (xA) and Expected Points (xP).
Expected Goals (xG) actually takes into account every goal scored by a player and gives a rating to it based on the probability of the shot being converted into a goal.
So, if Lionel Messi takes a shot from the edge of the penalty box and if it has an ‘xG’ of 0.37, it means that the probability of the shot going in the net was 37%. This is based on millions and billions of previously taken shots by players from that very spot on the field.
This really changed the way people looked at football. Suddenly underrated players were being lauded because they were scoring from opportunities which were really difficult to score from. This enabled to separate the best from the rest.
The same data has been used to find out various other crucial statistics like Expected Assists, Shot Creating Actions and Expected Points. All this data combined makes a huge tool which can predict the football games ‘to the T’ and probably to the highest accuracy levels.
The Genius of Tableau
Well, if the Opta Data wasn’t enough, the data analysts actually took it to another level. This was expected as the world is growing so fast in the technology space, even an advancement yesterday sometimes becomes redundant on the next day.
There were many coding programs being built to make more meaning out of the data provided by Opta sports and various other institutions. But the major problem? The complexity.
One of the biggest reasons why the biggest giants in the tech space are separated from the smaller players is their ability to connect with the regular consumer next door. There is nothing more indigenous than breaking down a complex concept and turning it into something that a 5-year-old could grasp within seconds. And that’s exactly what Tableau did.
Tableau was introduced way before even Opta released their data, but gained popularity when it was merged to produce amazing results. With Tableau, users can actually just import data from any legible source and the software would automatically make meaning out of it in the form of charts, graphs and what not.
This actually turned the traditional input-processing-output method to directly an input-output model, thus saving valuable time for people. Another big advantage of Tableau being that it actually produces data in such a beautiful format which can be both displayed in board meetings as well as decoded by any normal enthusiast sitting in front of his computer.
Tableau is being used by majority of the sports betting giants worldwide in making more accurate predictions as they get already compiled data straight in their hands almost immediately.
The Future of AI in football betting
The advancements in the space of Artificial Intelligence has almost taken accuracy levels to around 75–80%. This seems average to the naked eye, but considering the fact that results were around 40% without this technology, the current figures seem much more material.
The 20% inaccuracy which technology still hasn’t been able to conquer is because of some interpersonal factors affecting the beautiful game. A lot of minute factors like the dryness of the pitch could also have an impact to a drastic level. This is something the future holds in store for us.
Though taking all the factors into consideration for making decisions using Artificial Intelligence seems sort of impossible, who would have wondered about Expected Data by Opta and Tableau in the year 2000? Science has made the world endless and limitless.
A lot of critics have noted that with the advent of newer technology and the game becoming more and more predictable, it could have a huge impact on the excitement levels of the supporters. But the leftist wing of the space believes that the game prediction will never go beyond a certain level. Thus, it will not impact the enthusiasm and eagerness of the fans worldwide.
From a betting point of view though, the more Artificial Intelligence grows, the better. This will enable better predictions and could push a lot of newer players in the market, growing the industry on an overall basis. Additionally, with newer technologies, even the types of bets could be modified into more attractive models — which remains another lucrative aspect to wait for.
Nevertheless, there is not a hint of doubt that Artificial Intelligence can only improve the football betting industry multi-fold in the coming decades.