Title
A common-opponent stochastic model for predicting the outcome of professional tennis matches
Abstract
Tennis features among the most popular sports internationally, with professional matches played for 11 months of the year around the globe. The rise of the internet has stimulated a dramatic increase in tennis-related financial activity, much of which depends on quantitative models. This paper presents a hierarchical Markov model which yields a pre-play estimate of the probability of each player winning a professional singles tennis match. Crucially, the model provides a fair basis of comparison between players by analysing match statistics for opponents that both players have encountered in the past. Subsequently the model exploits elements of transitivity to compute the probability of each player winning a point on their serve, and hence the match. When evaluated using a data set of historical match statistics and bookmakers odds, the model yields a 3.8% return on investment over 2173 ATP matches played on a variety of surfaces during 2011.
Year
DOI
Venue
2012
10.1016/j.camwa.2012.03.005
Computers & Mathematics with Applications
Keywords
Field
DocType
quantitative model,model yield,tennis feature,professional singles tennis match,historical match statistic,analysing match statistic,dramatic increase,common-opponent stochastic model,professional match,professional tennis,hierarchical markov model,bookmakers odds,sport,stochastic modelling
Econometrics,Mathematical optimization,Return on investment,Markov model,Stochastic modelling,Odds,Adversary,Multimedia,Mathematics,The Internet,Transitive relation
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
64
12
0898-1221
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.41
3
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
William J. Knottenbelt157150.07
Demetris Spanias220.79
Agnieszka M. Madurska310.41