Sooners Real-Time Gambling Data - Gambletron 2000

[jharkins]

Found this through a Deadspin article on the exciting wild card game last night. It graphs real-time betting data during the game which gives a good overall picture of how exciting the game was. I found this absolutely fascinating. They have NFL, MLB, NBA and NCAAF games you can browse through.

Unfortunately, it looks like it was spawned out of the Boise State game. Per the website:

It’s 12:52am on January 2nd, 2007. Boise State has just shocked Oklahoma to win the Fiesta Bowl. Meanwhile, I’m staring at the game’s TradeSports page, watching the gambling odds fluctuate almost as wildly as the game itself. The last few minutes of the TradeSports graph looked like an EKG gone haywire: one minute Boise State had a 90% chance to win, then only moments later it was Oklahoma who had a 95% chance to win, until somehow Boise State miraculously pulled out the victory.

It occurred to me then that variance in gambling market odds is a good way to quantify how exciting a game is. Modern betting exchanges allow gamblers to bet throughout the course of a game. The odds, which can also be expressed as win probabilities, continually readjust as the game progresses. My claim is that the more the odds fluctuate during a game, the more exciting that game is.

http://www.gambletron2000.com/

Here are some of OU's highlights....

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10452225/gambletron_oklahoma_at_west_virginia.png https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10452225/gambletron_oklahoma_vs_alabama.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10452225/gambletron_oklahoma_at_oklahoma_state.png

[8timechamps]

That's a pretty cool site, even if it was spawned out of evil.

[BoulderSooner79]

It clearly shows that Sooner fans should keep the ticker healthy and the arteries clear.

[Wishboned]

They must have watched a different Sugar Bowl than I did.


Oklahoma pulled off a surprising upset to defeat Alabama. Oklahoma entered the game as the decided underdog, with a 13% chance to win before the game started.

From the outset, Oklahoma refused to go away, chipping away at Alabama's lead until Oklahoma took their first lead during the middle stretches of the game. Alabama did not go quietly, recapturing the lead for themselves, until Oklahoma regained control for good toward the end of the game.