Soccermatics: Mathematical Adventures in the Beautiful Game (Bloomsbury Sigma)

Soccermatics: Mathematic Adventures in the Beautiful Game (2016) by David Sumpter is a fine read that looks at how math can be used to explain and improve football. Sumpter is a professor of Applied Math in Sweden who does quite a lot of research helping football teams. The book looks are how graphs can be used to look at team passing. There is a very well named chapter 'How Slime Mould Built Barcelona'. There is a section on betting markets and strategies that can be used with them. The book also has a section on how statisticians and mathematicians are being employed now by football teams. The book is well written and has good explanations of the math involved. For anyone interested in the use of math in sport or in football the book is well worth a read.

Very enjoyable read with a range of good information on the game and mathematical approaches to analysing parts of it. Of particular interest was the cross pollination of research into animals with football. The book was broken up into easily digestible chunks that held the interest from start to finish and were not overly academic in nature. The layers within each chunk were built up sequentially and left one thinking that one knew something of the process, the maths involved and the utility of the work at the end of the chunk.Interspersed with good elements of humility and humour I found it well written for the layman (me) and the depth there for budding mathematicians, football managers and researchers. Worth the cost of purchase for me. Looking forward to seeing more from this author.

Great book! As someone who works on public health-epidemiology I'm used to statistical models, this book illustrate how soccer can be use as means of explaining this models as well as how it can enrich research in all areas. Is good in math and soccer level, is great to give you insights, particulary if you do research in any area or if you like soccer and wanna get into the somewhat cryptic math of its statistics in order to filter the bs from media expert. If you what you are looking for is "magic bullet" book for gambling, this won't be case.

Exceptionally good read if you're interested in Applied Mathematics and soccer. It goes much deeper than stats of teams and players. It actually explains players' behavior on the field using mathematical models and comparing it to colonies of ants or fish. There's much more - that's not what the entire book is about. Understanding soccer is pretty much a must, but you don't have to be an expert fan to enjoy it. I only watch soccer every four years during the World Cup and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

The finest, most delightful soccer book I’ve ever read. I’ve got some more reading and thinking to do. Thank you, David.

I definitely liked the premise of the book, applying mathematic techniques to analyze soccer, and the author presented his work in an approachable manner. While I think the math presented was simple enough, I could have handled more and wish the book was a little more in depth.

Compared to soccernomics this is the much better book. It doesn't quite reach the writing quality of moneyball but it is nevertheless entertaining and full of great insight and fun math applications.

Interesting comparisons between real life situations and the beautiful game. It's a must read if you liked books like Soccernomics and The Numbers Game. Smart insights to understand the game through numbers and nature.

Soccer and stats is something that I've taken an interest in personally and have spent some time working with data from both Prozone and Opta. I was interested to read this book and understand other approaches used with similar data sets that I had been working and read it with an open mind. One of the main flaws for me was in David Sumpter's use of behaviours in the natural world amongst organisms and then players on a football field. For example, how animals or insects might congregate together and how this could be read across to the soccer pitch. Absolute nonsense! Far too simplistic, spurious and irrelevant. It was then explained that Paul Power at Prozone had tried applying some techniques along similar lines to soccer data that had resulted in abject failure - surprise, surprise!!The chapter on player recruitment was perhaps more relevant to the direction that data analysis is taking at present to support football clubs and there was also quite an interesting section on betting and the outcome of various techniques used to predict outcomes of games. I did trial the prediction technique suggested in the book for probabilities of overwhelming favourites winning and below a certain probability level, drawing, using SkySports Super 6 for the 2017/ 18 season so there was no actual stake involved. Just as well! For the most part, the overwhelming favourites won (surprise, surprise again!) although the games suggested as a draw were almost always wrong.Sumpter also includes mention in a later chapter that he had questioned some of those analysing data in the industry for their views on approach and findings. The response was that people would rather that there was more peer reviewing and critical analysis of what was being produced to ensure robust use of the findings. This is something that the author could have done with when producing the book.The book itself was quite well written and had the odd interesting example but overall would have benefited greatly from some oversight and editing to make for a more concise and compelling read.We are still a way off having the definitive book written on the subject of data analysis in soccer as its an evolving area. This particular effort doesn't add a great deal of illumination to the topic.

I'm a great lover of mathematics and its real world applications. Having read Soccernomics, I was drawn to this and I've loved every page. The language isn't too technical and all the concepts described are easy to understand. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone interested in either football or mathematics or, like me, both.

Many statistics I've talked about with friends! Fastest book I've read this year,impossible to put down! Even managed to make a few quid from the betting ideas. Recommend to anyone looking for some insight into our beautiful game.

I’ve read a lot of books on statistical analysis in sports. This is the first one I have about football that actually describes the mathematical models used.There are also good anecdotes and quotes from players and managers. There’s even a couple of chapters where the author attempts to beat the betting market.I really liked it, but I enjoy numbers and do my own analysis as a hobby.

Interesting book well worth a read.