Seahawks And Patriots: Microsoft Bing Predicts Bittersweet Victory
- by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, January 18, 2015
Sunday's games, which sent the Seattle Seahawks back to the Super Bowl, was a victory not only for the Seahawks and the
Patriots, but for Microsoft's analytics team, which predicted the NFL teams that would head to the Super Bowl. In overtime, Jermaine Kearse gave
Seattle a 28-22 victory over the Green Bay Packers. They will play the Patriots, who won their eighth AFC championship, in the Super Bowl in
Glendale, Arizona.
Microsoft Bing predicts there is a 51.5% chance the Patriots will take the Seahawks on Feb. 1. Now the search engine will get a chance to prove its worth.
Bing's algorithm for its search engine has taken on forecasting National Football League games, posting NFL game predictions in search engine results. The listings post game matches and times, along with a list of the teams that Bing predicts will win the games.
The Seahawks, owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, could see a bittersweet ending, with Bing predicting a loss to the New England Patriots in the championship.
Microsoft correctly predicted three of the four NFL playoff games. Predictive mathematical models are not new, but they are getting more accurate. Big Data supports the shift, along with a better understanding of the numbers.
Big friggin deal, I predicted the winner of every playoff game this year. I didn't use algorithms to do it, just common sense. The # 1 seeds played and won the final game. No big deal. My predictions were straight up and documented but NOT against the point spread.
51.5%? that's a prediction? That might be valuable if they could play the Superbowl 100 times back-to-back.
Here's one: I predict, with 100% certainty, that the next internet search I do will not use Bing.