Chapter 35 Using Solver to rate sports teams
Question answered in this chapter:
Can I use Excel to set NFL point spreads?
Many of us follow basketball, football, hockey, or baseball. Odds makers set point spreads on games in all these sports and others. For example, the bookmakers’ best guess was that the Carolina Panthers would win the 2016 Super Bowl by five points. Instead, the Denver Broncos won the game. In this chapter, we will learn how Solver can accurately estimate the relative strength of NFL teams.
Using a simple Solver model, you can generate reasonable point spreads for games based on the scores of the 2017 season (including all games excluding the 2018 Super Bowl). The work is in file Nfl2017.xlsx, shown in Figure 35-1. You simply ...
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