Finding Non-Linear Relationships Between AFL Variables : Alternative Measures to MIC

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The Maximal Information Coefficient (MIC) that we explored in the previous blog is not the only non-linear measure of the pairwise relationship between any two continuous variables.
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Optimising the Wager: Yet More Custom Metrics in Formulize

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As the poets Galdston, Waldman & Lind penned for the songstress Vanessa Williams: "sometimes the very thing you're looking for, is the one thing you can't see" (now try to get that song out of your head for the next few hours ...)
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What's Easier - Predicting the Home or the Away Team Score?

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Consider the following scenario. You're offered a bet in which you can choose to predict the final score of the Home or of the Away team and your adversary is then required to predict the final score of the other team.
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Specialist Margin Prediction: Epsilon Insensitive Loss Functions

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In the last blog we looked at Margin Prediction using what I called "bathtub" loss functions. For the current blog I've extended the range of loss functions to include what are called epsilon-insensitive loss functions, which are similar to the "bathtub" loss functions except that they don't treat absolute errors of size greater than M points equally.
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Specialist Margin Prediction: "Bathtub" Loss Functions

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We know that we can build quite simple, non-linear models to predict the margin of AFL games that will, on average, be within about 30 points of the actual result. So, if you found a bet type for which general margin prediction accuracy was important - where every point of error contributed to your less - then this would be your model. This year we'll be moving into margin betting though, where the goal is to predict within X points of the actual result and being in error by X+1 points is no different from being wrong by X+100 points. In that environment, our all-purpose model might not be the right choice. In this blog I'll be describing a process for creating margin predicting models that specialise in predicting within X points of the final outcome.
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Deconstructing The 2011 TAB Sportsbet Bookmaker

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To what extent can the head-to-head prices set by the TAB Sportsbet Bookmaker in 2011 be modelled using only the competing teams' MAFL MARS Ratings, their respective Venue Experiences, and the Interstate Status of the fixture?
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Drawing On Hindsight

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When sports journos wait until after a contest has been decided before declaring a group of winning punters to be "savvy", I find it hard not to be at least a little cynical about the aptness of the label.

So when, on Sunday, I read in the online version of the SMH that a posse of said savvy punters had foxed the bookies and cleaned up on the draw, collectively winning as I recall about $1m at prices ranging from $34 to $51, I did wonder how many column-inches would have been devoted to those same punters had the margin been anything different when the final siren sounded on Saturday. I'm fairly certain it would have been the number that has '1' as its next-door, up the road neighbour on Integer Street.
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