Mathematical programming as a tool for virtual soccer coaches: A case study of a fantasy sport game

General awareness of the potential of mathematics to support sports decision making has been raised by the movie "Moneyball" through its portrayal of a real professional American baseball club that used mathematical tools to improve team performance. This article addresses the same challen...

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Autores principales: Bonomo, Flavia, Durán, Guillermo A., Marenco, Javier Leonardo
Publicado: 2014
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Acceso en línea:https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_09696016_v21_n3_p399_Bonomo
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_09696016_v21_n3_p399_Bonomo
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Sumario:General awareness of the potential of mathematics to support sports decision making has been raised by the movie "Moneyball" through its portrayal of a real professional American baseball club that used mathematical tools to improve team performance. This article addresses the same challenge using as a test case a fantasy sport game organized by an Argentinian newspaper. Two mathematical programming models are presented that act as virtual coaches that choose a virtual team lineup for each round of the real Argentinian soccer league. The a priori design creates a competitive team for the game, while the a posteriori model determines what would have been its optimal lineup once the season is over and all the results are known. The a priori model was entered in the fantasy game, achieving results that positioned it among the highest scoring participants. Further development of such models would provide useful tools for supporting decision making by coaches or managers of real sports. © 2013 International Federation of Operational Research Societies Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main St, Malden, MA02148, USA.