Football match predictor

Premier League 2019/20 to 2024/25 · walk-forward backtest on 760 unseen matches (Aug 2023 to May 2025)

Model vs bookmaker

modelmatchesaccuracyBrierlog loss
bookmaker76056.6%0.55600.9399
logistic76055.1%0.57060.9597
poisson76053.7%0.57280.9646
grad_boost76054.1%0.58240.9786
baseline_freq76043.4%0.64621.0673

Lower Brier and log loss is better. The bookmaker line is the average market odds with the margin removed.

Log loss by model

log loss by model

How far behind the market?

cumulative log loss vs bookmaker

Calibration (home win)

calibration

Results mix by season

home advantage by season

Season points vs market expectation

seasonteampointsmarket xPtsdiff
2019/20Liverpool9982.8+16.2
2024/25Nott'm Forest6549.1+15.9
2020/21West Ham6549.4+15.6
2019/20Burnley5440.5+13.5
2022/23Brentford5946.4+12.6

Computed in SQL from average odds. Big positive numbers are teams that beat what the market expected.

Data: football-data.co.uk (results and average odds). Not betting advice: no model here beats the market.