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poisson distribution

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football

Understanding uncertainty: Football crazy

On May 22nd 2009 the English Premier league had one more match day ahead. Taking up a challenge from the BBC radio, David Spiegelhalter and Yin-Lam Ng used statistics to predict the outcome of the last matches — and they were 90% correct. Find out how they did it.

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Blast it like Beckham?

What tactics should a soccer player use when taking a penalty kick? And what can the goalkeeper do to foil his plans? John Haigh uses Game Theory to find the answers, and looks at his World Cup predictions from last issue.

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On the ball

If your team scores first in a football match, how likely is it to win? And when is it worth committing a professional foul? John Haigh shows us how to use probability to answer these and other questions, and explains the implications for the rules of the game.