2015 Super Bowl Square Pool Odds (By Quarter)

The Super Bowl is fast-approaching – along with interest in the popular Super Bowl Square Pools. If you are participating in a Square Pool (where only the last digit for each team counts), you are randomly assigned a digit for each team, such as New England 3, and Seattle 4. Many fans have an idea of what numbers are “good.” Here, we compute Super Bowl Square Pool probabilities by quarter, based on recent historical results.

Read more here:

http://quantfacts.sportsblog.com/posts/1688009/2015_super_bowl_square_pools__by_quarter_.html

Quant Facts now 41-24 (63.1%)

We split this year's NBA and NHL finals, so that our record is now 41-24 (63.1%) in major championships.  We selected the Miami Heat incorrectly, but note that the San Antonio Spurs were a favorite in the finals.

The fact that these relatively simple methods have posted a 63.1% winning percentage when regularly selecting underdogs -- shows the power of analytics and sports psychology.  

Carlton Chin is a quant fact researcher who enjoys applying math to everything from sports analytics to the financial markets. Thoughtful analysis can result in knowledge discovery and help to explain the world around us. Carlton has been a contributor to the Sacramento Kings Advisory Council, New York Times and Rant Sports, and has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal and ESPN. 

Dr. Jay Granat is a psychotherapist and has been named one of America's top mental gurus.  Jay coaches athletes of all levels, and has appeared in a variety of media outlets, including Good Morning America, ESPN and the New York Times.  

2014 NBA Finals: Who Will Win the Big Game?

Below is an excerpt from our analysis of this year's NBA Finals. We quantify statistics related to sports psychology to study the importance of key concepts such as leadership, experience, focus on fundamentals and defense, and minimizing errors.  Over the years, we have been able to predict the winners of major championships at a rate of 63.5% -- while sometimes going against the grain and selecting underdogs.

Together with Dr. Jay Granat, a psychotherapist, I quantified factors related to sports psychology. Our “quant facts” have successfully predicted the winner of this year’s Super Bowl and NCAA Men’s Final Four. Over the past several years, our predictions have been correct 63.5 percent of the time for major championships, while sometimes picking underdogs.

In part one of the series, we learned that the Miami Heat have an edge over the San Antonio Spurs in important factors such as big game experience and defense. What do the numbers say about other factors related to sports psychology?

Read more at: 
http://www.rantsports.com/nba/2014/06/05/2014-nba-finals-numbers-predict-who-will-win/?ft1A1QzGxUPoyZVu.99

Please also read our analysis for the 2014 NHL Stanley Cup Finals.