Premier League predictions: Lawro v SAM the super-computer
BBC Sport's football expert Mark Lawrenson is pitting his wits against a different guest each week this season.
Lawro's opponent for Boxing Day's Premier League fixtures is a state-of-the-art super-computer called SAM (Sports Analytics Machine).
Ian McHale, professor of sports analytics at the University of Salford, together with his colleague, Tarak Kharrat, has built SAM and one of the things it can do is predict the outcomes of football matches.
"We are in the era of big data, and since the 'moneyball' revolution kick-started the use of analytics in baseball, progress in football has gathered pace *****ly," said McHale.
"We have data on results, teams, players and every event in every match - there is no better time to see if man can beat the machine."
BBC Sport's football expert Mark Lawrenson is pitting his wits against a different guest each week this season.
Lawro's opponent for Boxing Day's Premier League fixtures is a state-of-the-art super-computer called SAM (Sports Analytics Machine).
Ian McHale, professor of sports analytics at the University of Salford, together with his colleague, Tarak Kharrat, has built SAM and one of the things it can do is predict the outcomes of football matches.
"We are in the era of big data, and since the 'moneyball' revolution kick-started the use of analytics in baseball, progress in football has gathered pace *****ly," said McHale.
"We have data on results, teams, players and every event in every match - there is no better time to see if man can beat the machine."