Skip to main content

(Fantasy) Game On 4

It's that time of year again when footballs are flying. Yup, the NFL is back.

Actually, it has been for a few months now. So, you might be curious why I bring it up at this particular moment. Well, we've been playing fantasy football again this season, so there's another amusing story.

First of all, I should mention that the Mild Wife and I aren't doing as well this year as last year. We're both somewhere near the middle of the pack, but we both had a pretty bad start to the year. I think at one point, I was at the bottom of the standings. What can I say? Some years, you just have some bad luck.

Now, it's not like I can personally give these guys pep talks or otherwise control their performance, either. Ultimately, I just have to pick players and hope for the best. Even players who everyone expects to perform admirably sometimes have off years, so there's definitely an element of luck to the whole thing.

Still, that hasn't stopped a whole industry from popping up around this hobby. As of four years ago, the industry was estimated to be worth about $70 billion dollars. And I'm absolutely positive that the industry has only grown since then. Given that, it shouldn't surprise you that people run all sorts of statistical models and try to wean numerical advantages from these fantasy teams. Seriously. I know a few people who actually do this. They are very smart, very competitive people that happen to like fantasy football.

The sites that run fantasy football leagues can do this, too, so they tend to provide some of this analysis for their players. It helps remove the barrier to entry, so everyone can feel like they can play and have a shot to win. From a pure business perspective, it's smart. It widens the pool of people who want to play.

Now, remember that the Mild Wife was new to the whole fantasy football thing last year. She was precisely the sort of person that would benefit from the industry-provided projections and statistical analysis. If you remember the post from last year, that's what she did. In fact, she rode those projections to the top of the standings and to an ultimate championship in her rookie year. Yup, she won the whole darn thing.

As I mentioned, however, this year is a different story. That's led to my favorite remark about the different outcomes this year:

Mild Wife: "Whoever is doing the projections this year is no good. They need to bring back last year's person."

I burst out laughing when I heard that. Clearly, she's grasped the value of using data science to win at fantasy football. Incidentally, if any of you are up-and-coming data scientists, might I suggest a future with ESPN's fantasy football division?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New York City Trip (Day 3)

By the third day of the trip, I was tired enough from the previous day's adventures/subway rides that I felt like sleeping in. And sleep in I did. I think I woke up at something like 11:30 or noon. Of course, that meant that a later start to the day, which started the vicious cycle all over again. By the time we rolled into Manhattan, it was about two in the afternoon. I had tentatively set aside Sunday to see something on Broadway, so we headed over to the tkts booth for discount tickets. There were actually various 3PM options, and after mulling our options, we figured it'd be a good idea to catch one of those. We settled on The Toxic Avenger , which was actually an off-Broadway option. However, we hadn't eaten yet, and the show started about 15 minutes after we got our tickets. Enter the food carts. There happened to be one right outside the theater, and the guy charged a little bit of a premium for the convenience. Still, I was hungry, and I had yet to try...
1 comment
Read more

Moment of Truth

I forget where I first heard it (I think it might have been Descartes), but I have long been a fan of the notion that certain things just have a " ring of truth " to them. If you've never heard the idiom before, the basic idea is that some things are super-true. They are not just true, but they are so obviously true, that as soon as you hear them, you recognize the truthiness inherent in them. I usually get excited when I hear one of these, since it means that I am a tiny bit less ignorant from that moment forward. For the first time in memory, though, I experienced the ring of truth. First, let me paint the scene with a little bit of background. I'd made plans to have dinner with my friend, but we'd agreed to play it by ear. The end result was that we ended up settling on a pretty late dinner in a local spot. That worked out just fine, since we weren't shooting for gourmet, we just wanted to grab some food and catch up in the process. So, we headed out to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

All Good Things ...

August 8, 2009. Over twelve years ago, I started blogging with this simple post . I didn't really have a great reason for starting the blog, other than I wanted to try it out. I wanted to try writing and putting it where others could read it. I don't know, it just seemed like a new adventure to try. Along the way, there have been all sorts of posts and all sorts of life events, but through it all, I kept writing. It just became a part of what I do at some point. It wasn't a matter of whether I was going to write a blog post, it was a matter of when. The Mild Wife has described it as a "writing practice," and it was one of the reasons why I kept writing. Honestly, it's good practice, and it gives me an opportunity to hone my craft. I'm no professional author, but we all have to write stuff in our everyday lives. Why not give yourself reps to get better at it? However, I think it's time for that practice to change. My weekly anecdotes sure kept me amused...
Post a Comment
Read more