9 ms·

I've been thinking about this recently. A developer could do so much better (he's still copying from spreadsheets). Who wants to put this guy out of business wi

by dynofuz 12y ago

I've been thinking about this recently. A developer could do so much better (he's still copying from spreadsheets). Who wants to put this guy out of business with me?

kylebrown 12y ago
I had fun trying my hand at generating NBA lineups earlier this year.[1] I'd love to give it another go (my email is in my profile). 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7272365 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7272365
lziz 12y ago
A developer could do the parsing of the data better, but who's to say his spreadsheets (with I'm assuming graphs, color codes, etc) aren't providing the data visualization that makes the actual decision making clearer. I don't know about putting him out of business, but I bet I could put myself in business with him.
eph_unit 12y ago
I'm interested--send me a pm
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
jparker165 12y ago
You'll surely be more efficient with handling data, but you don't have digital access to all the data you'd need. For example, the chance that a player plays at all (if they are in questionable health) is one of the most important signals. But you can't just write a regression from past data on that player/team/coach. An intuitive guess from reading several media reports will be far for accurate. This guy is surely manually entering a "%chance of playing" driver into these models. But, if you teamed up with a subject matter expert that fed meta-predictions into your model, you'd likely end up with better results.
- ioddly 12y ago
  > You'll surely be more efficient with handling data, but you don't have digital access to all the data you'd need. It occurs to me that collating said data in an accessible format for a modest fee would be a pretty good low hanging fruit business idea. I'm sure there must be something like that out there but last time I looked into this, 2-3 years ago, I couldn't even get the NBA schedule in JSON or some other programming-friendly format, let alone things like injuries and lineup changes.
  - Nicholas_C 12y ago
    Sounds like an interesting project. Where would one even get this data from? Scraping ESPN is always an option (a painful one at that) but I'm not sure they would appreciate that. Edit: After a quick Google search I found several data providers: http://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-APIs-with-game-schedules-available-for-NFL-NCAA-FB-NBA-NCAA-BB-and-MLB-teams?share=1 http://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-APIs-with-game-schedules-...
  - TylerE 12y ago
    Everything old is new again http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STATS_LLC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STATS_LLC "STATS LLC is a global sports statistics and information company – the company name originated as an acronym for "Sports Team Analysis and Tracking Systems". It was founded on April 30, 1981[1] by John Dewan,[2] who became the company's CEO. STATS was an outgrowth of the grassroots non-profit Project Scoresheet, a volunteer network created to collect baseball statistics, prompted by a suggestion made by Bill James, who later joined STATS for a time. In 1987, STATS developed a reporter network for Major League Baseball and provided research for NBC's postseason baseball coverage, and by 1989 was doing the same for ESPN's broadcasts.[1]"
  - JamesSwift 12y ago
    The services are out there, and they ain't cheap.
mlla 12y ago
I've been doing some models for live betting on ice hockey, but am now thinking of working on models for other sports as well. Would be nice to discuss about this and other ideas on sports betting and fantasy sports! My contact information is on my profile.
johnm111888 12y ago
his competitive advantage is the algorithm not the tools he's using
pitt1980 12y ago
I'd be interesting in putting heads together email me at pwzst1@yahoo.com

by dynofuz 12y ago

I've been thinking about this recently. A developer could do so much better (he's still copying from spreadsheets). Who wants to put this guy out of business with me?

kylebrown 12y ago

I had fun trying my hand at generating NBA lineups earlier this year.[1] I'd love to give it another go (my email is in my profile). 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7272365 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7272365

lziz 12y ago

A developer could do the parsing of the data better, but who's to say his spreadsheets (with I'm assuming graphs, color codes, etc) aren't providing the data visualization that makes the actual decision making clearer. I don't know about putting him out of business, but I bet I could put myself in business with him.

eph_unit 12y ago

I'm interested--send me a pm

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

jparker165 12y ago

You'll surely be more efficient with handling data, but you don't have digital access to all the data you'd need. For example, the chance that a player plays at all (if they are in questionable health) is one of the most important signals. But you can't just write a regression from past data on that player/team/coach. An intuitive guess from reading several media reports will be far for accurate. This guy is surely manually entering a "%chance of playing" driver into these models. But, if you teamed up with a subject matter expert that fed meta-predictions into your model, you'd likely end up with better results.

ioddly 12y ago
> You'll surely be more efficient with handling data, but you don't have digital access to all the data you'd need. It occurs to me that collating said data in an accessible format for a modest fee would be a pretty good low hanging fruit business idea. I'm sure there must be something like that out there but last time I looked into this, 2-3 years ago, I couldn't even get the NBA schedule in JSON or some other programming-friendly format, let alone things like injuries and lineup changes.
- Nicholas_C 12y ago
  Sounds like an interesting project. Where would one even get this data from? Scraping ESPN is always an option (a painful one at that) but I'm not sure they would appreciate that. Edit: After a quick Google search I found several data providers: http://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-APIs-with-game-schedules-available-for-NFL-NCAA-FB-NBA-NCAA-BB-and-MLB-teams?share=1 http://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-APIs-with-game-schedules-...
- TylerE 12y ago
  Everything old is new again http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STATS_LLC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STATS_LLC "STATS LLC is a global sports statistics and information company – the company name originated as an acronym for "Sports Team Analysis and Tracking Systems". It was founded on April 30, 1981[1] by John Dewan,[2] who became the company's CEO. STATS was an outgrowth of the grassroots non-profit Project Scoresheet, a volunteer network created to collect baseball statistics, prompted by a suggestion made by Bill James, who later joined STATS for a time. In 1987, STATS developed a reporter network for Major League Baseball and provided research for NBC's postseason baseball coverage, and by 1989 was doing the same for ESPN's broadcasts.[1]"
- JamesSwift 12y ago
  The services are out there, and they ain't cheap.

mlla 12y ago

I've been doing some models for live betting on ice hockey, but am now thinking of working on models for other sports as well. Would be nice to discuss about this and other ideas on sports betting and fantasy sports! My contact information is on my profile.

johnm111888 12y ago

his competitive advantage is the algorithm not the tools he's using

pitt1980 12y ago

I'd be interesting in putting heads together email me at pwzst1@yahoo.com