Statistical Sports Models in Excel

I've read many books on sports betting. I've read many books on statistical modeling and data science. I've yet to find a book that blended the two together...until now. When I first heard this book was being written, I was dubious. Why would someone write a book to the masses that would clearly give away a competitive advantage that the author enjoys? Perhaps the reason is because the author is not a good modeler and wants to make a quick buck? After reading this book, I clearly see I was mistaken to doubt the author's proficiency in sports modeling. In fact, the author addresses why he would write the book right from the start. My next concern was if this book is "too good" it's going to hurt my competitive advantage as a professional sports bettor. The author is very generous with providing template spreadsheets to work with and showing his work. However, if you've never attempted to create a model in Excel, you're going to feel a bit lost in this book. This is a good thing. You shouldn't want to be spoon-fed everything. There's a great satisfaction in learning by increasing your understanding gradually. This book will definitely speed the plow for the sports betting modeler. It'll make you aware of concepts and how they can be leveraged. It won't do all the work for you. I started making my first Excel models back in 2004. If I had this book anytime in those early formative years, oh the places I could have gone. Instead I learned many of the concepts in this book through good old trial and error over the years. Lots of error. If you're going to read this book make sure you have a passion, or at least a strong curiosity, about sports betting modeling. This book is targeted for a person who understands sports betting and understands the basics of statistical analysis but hasn't bridged the gap yet. As for the advanced bettor who already utilizes some sort of quantitative analysis for their betting. The author points out in the chapter titled "The Benter Boost" that you should always be looking to read as much as you can about other attempts people have made to solve sports modeling problem. I agree with this. It's why I'm always willing to read books on sports wagering. It's also why other pros who might think a book written about Excel is a bit beneath them should also buy this book. Even if you develop with other analytical tools like Python or R, you can find value in this book. Overall, I think this is a strong addition to any sports betting library and one which I'll probably read again a few times when I'm looking to expand my approach to a modeling problem.

Statistics and sports modeling can be a pretty arcane and challenging subject for those with a more limited background in stats, etc and this book does as good a job of bridging that gap as you possibly can. It explains concepts very clearly and in easy to understand terms with just the right amount of detail. Its very well done. The fact that he provides you with a full suite of workable models to compliment the material makes this an enormous value. The models alone are worth many times what you pay for the book. They're imperative in helping you work through the material, understand the concepts and, from there, develop modeling ideas of your own. In short, this book as is good as it gets in terms of an intro to sports modeling and a tremendous bang for your buck. I'll certainly be moving on to the second book once I've fully digested this first volume.

This is a solid book to get acquainted with the type of statistics you'll need to do sports modeling. It introduces a variety of models along with spreadsheets to explore the mechanics of those models. The second half of the book talks about a variety of approaches/ideas for betting into different markets. It's a great resource if you're coming at this material for the first time, and I've not really seen any other books out there that talk about statistical modeling in the context of sports specifically. However, at times it's a little light on the math, opting instead to simply introduce a model and move on. For example, you're probably not going to be able to understand how Maximum Likelihood Estimation works by reading the little blurb in the book, but you will have the term in your head and can explore more deeply on your own. The book also doesn't delve much into the philosophy of modeling, e.g, how to make sure you're modeling signal rather than noise and what sorts of questions to ask to guide your efforts on that front. I don't expect the author to give away any edges, but there wasn't even really a mention of how to model outcomes using stats that are actually predictive rather than descriptive. And I believe that kind of thinking is more important than knowing about a handful of models. Finally, there were a handful of errors in the book that were a little distracting. Overall the book is worth a read if you're interested in getting a lay of the land in sports modeling.

A fantastic book for someone who is looking to get into sports modeling. Excel is where a lot of people start their modeling journey and this book provides you with a deep dive into some of the most well known sports models. It shows you how excel is set up so that different models can operate and it comes with a downloadable package so you can easily learn the functionality of each model as you read

Great info in the book and very easy to follow along, and understand. Along with the downloadable spreadsheets should make you a better bettor

If you are math and programming and research inclined, this is an excellent starting point. Many sheets are prepared in advance, to get you off to a fast start. Modeling is fun. You can find edges and profit, but modeling itself, playing with numbers itself, with a specific goal, is fun. This book is a great start in that direction. Make no mistake: whether you end up a winning sports bettor will depend upon your talent and work ethic. But this book points you in the right direction, no doubt. Highly recommend for anyone with an interest in analytics and sports betting. GL, have fun.

This book has cut innumerable hours off of my learning curve for learning how to create my own sports models. It isn't an exhaustive dissertation on applied statistical modeling, but it doesn't need to be. All of that information is freely available. This book gave me exactly what I needed to get started so I can learn by doing. If finding a way to develop your own edge in the sports wagering market is your goal, you cannot go wrong with this book.

Very good book if you are getting into serious sports betting. Definitely would recommend. Would have given 5 stars if the author would have explained a little more in depth on why you would use a formula or function in the Excel spreadsheet instead of just telling you to use it. His work is based on the book Mathletics and I ended up getting that which did explain and thus helped with Mr. Mack's book. Would recommend that you get the Mathletics book along with a basic statistics reference. Actually did help with my sports betting decisions.

Buen libro, había estudiado sobre el tema, pero este libro me dió nuevas y buenas ideas sobre el tema.

Very clear and easy to understand overview of the theory of statistical modelling. I think even seasoned modellers would enjoy this book, even those anti-excel snobs :)

This book has been an excellent insight into the world of modelling in Excel. It’s written so that it’s accessible to all and helps you to understand the models so that you can then make them your own, depending on your interest in any sport and market. Functions are explained in Excel that I have, but have never explored fully. A definite recommendation - there’s nothing else out there like it.

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This book was a bit to advanced for me, as i have no background in excel or statistics. That being said the information was presented in a way that made it readable and im sure i can get a lot value out of it if i go through it a couple more times. I would like to thank the author for sharing! As for the negative reviews: 90% of people are dumb and loose at betting... im just glad im in the other 1% :)