An Investigation of Sports Betting Selection and Sizing
John Beggy, Daniel Kim, Kejdi Mucaj, James Nordell

Across the many sports betting book, there is variability in the betting lines. Using the average implied odds as a proxy for actual probability, strategic betters are able to identify mispriced lines. These mispriced lines can yield positive expected value opportunities. This work explores bet sizing strategies.

Calculating NBA MVPs Using Advanced Sports Analytics
Max Shen, Gergo Nagy

The NBA MVP, given since the 1955–56 season, is the most prestigious individual award in professional basketball. It is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award received by the best performing player of the regular season. While the criteria for the award is subjective, advanced sports analytics can provide a more objective method to measure player performance and identify the most deserving MVP candidate each season. In this project, we will use advanced sports analytics to create a model for calculating the 2023 NBA MVP.

Predicting March Madness Cinderella Teams
Allen Sha, Noah Hyman, Joshua Sewell, Aron Ramsey

This study investigates the challenge of predicting which low-seeded teams will make it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Championship tournament. The authors utilized power scores and simulations to predict Cinderella teams and examined the factors that contribute to their success. The study found that power scores alone were insufficient to identify Cinderella teams, and that favorable matchups and luck also played significant roles.

Why Did they Succeed? A World Cup 2022 Analysis
Aaron Lim, Harrison Goetz, Fangzhou Dai, Kelly Zhang, Neil Varwandkar

The World Cup is considered the premier competition in soccer, with the winner claiming the honor of the title of the sport’s best. Different factors contribute to teams making it all the way to the final and doing well in the
competition. We used data from the 2022 Qatar World Cup, and gave each team a final rank as well as statistics for each team. Our hypothesis was that the factors salary and goals per 90 are most predictive of a team’s World Cup final rank in 2022.

Effect of Increased Three-point Shot Attempts on Probability of Winning in High School Basketball
Samantha Kostacos

Data analytics are used regularly in professional sports today. In particular, NBA basketball has used data science to determine that a strategy of taking more three-point shots has been shown to be effective. However, similar studies have not been done at the high school level. I interpreted data taken from a men’s high school basketball team over the course of one year. Specifically, I recorded the two and three-point shots attempted, the made field goals, field goal percentages and the outcomes of the games. The hypothesis was that increasing the number of three-point shot attempts would lead to a higher offensive rating and wins.