Soccer Analytics with Machine Learning

Glossary

activation function

A mathematical function in a neural network that determines the output of a node given a set of inputs. Common activation functions include ReLU (rectified linear unit), sigmoid, and tanh (hyperbolic tangent).

algorithm

A set of rules or instructions to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer. In machine learning, an algorithm is used to learn patterns from data.

application programming interface (API)

A set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate with each other. In soccer analytics, APIs are often used to access data from providers like StatsBomb or Opta.

arbitrage

In sports betting, an arbitrage opportunity exists when a bettor can place proportional bets on every possible outcome of an event across different bookmakers to guarantee a profit, regardless of the outcome.

area under the curve (AUC)

A metric used to evaluate the performance of a binary classification model. It represents the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. A higher AUC value, closer to 1, indicates a better-performing model.

array

A data structure that stores a collection of items, typically of the same data type. In Python, NumPy arrays are commonly used for numerical operations in data analysis.

backpropagation

An algorithm used to train neural networks. It works by calculating the gradient of the loss function with respect to the network’s weights, ...