Football is the most popular sport in the world. Millions of people watch the matches and ask themselves: who will win? Can you predict that?
In the past, humans made these predictions. Experts know the teams well. They know which players are strong. They pay attention to everything that happens on the field and often make good predictions.
Today, there is artificial intelligence (AI). AI is smart. It can process a lot of data very quickly. Many think that it may be able to make better predictions than humans. But is that really true? Humans have something that computers don’t have, namely instinct and intuition. Sharpen yours, a platform that has a category that satisfies the needs of every user!
How does AI work in prediction?
AI works with data. Data is information. For example: How many goals has a player scored? How many passes have been completed? How often does a club win at home? How often does it lose away?
The AI collects such information, then looks for patterns. A pattern is something that happens again and again. If a player often scores a goal in the last minute, the program recognizes that. Using these patterns, AI tries to calculate: Who will win the next game?
What can experts do better?
Experts know the scene, the players and the coaches. They know who is injured. They know whether an athlete is tired because they also pay attention to small details. For example, what the weather is like that day.
Sometimes they are also fans of a team and have a good feeling for how their team is playing. Computers don’t have that gut feeling.
Who makes more accurate predictions?
There are many tests. You compare: Who predicts the result better? AI or experts? The results are different. Sometimes the computer is right. But sometimes the person is too.
The problem: AI only uses the data it has. But sometimes unexpected things happen in reality. For example: someone gets injured during the game. Or there is a red card.
Experts have a better understanding of such surprises. They have experience. They have seen or experienced many situations. Sometimes they just feel that a group will win – even if the data says otherwise.
Can AI really predict everything?
AI can do a lot. It can help us understand many things better, but it is not perfect, especially when it comes to a topic like football. Football is often unpredictable.
A ball can easily be deflected. A player can stumble. A small decision by the referee can change everything. No algorithm can predict such things, but professionals in the field know this. They think about such details.
Will it get better?
Yes, AI is getting better and better and it can already do a lot today. In the future it could perhaps learn even more and then it will also get better at predicting games.
But it is difficult to say whether it will ever be better than humans. Because humans know the sport. They have feelings. They have instincts. They can feel things that robots don’t understand.
What does this mean for the future?
Maybe in the future we will combine machines and humans. The AI can analyze the data and the experts can add the human factors. This could make the predictions even better.
For now, AI can help, but experts are still very important. Football remains a game full of surprises. Nobody can predict everything.
