Puckin' Off 3

Welcome to the final installment in the Puckin' Off trilogy!

If you aren't sure what I am going on about then let me refresh your memory.

Last week I hooked up my old Nintendo 64 console and was playing NHL Ice Hockey. During the game I had an idea of betting on the sport by looking at the upcoming fixtures and then having the computer play out the match in simulation mode. The result generated by the games machine would be what I would bet on.

There were three upcoming games so I placed a series of bets on them with my results. I used a patent bet and spent £7 in total.

The return I got was £5.80. A loss of £1.20.

Detroit vs San Jose

The computer predicted a 3-0 win for Detroit. The actual result was 4-1 so this was a winner on the bet. I had selected the Detroit Redwings to win.
What was also amazing was the computer game had even predicted that the team would win by three clear goals.

Anaheim vs Vancouver

The simulated score was 2-0 to the Mighty Ducks. As they were favourites in betting I decided I would go for the better odds of selecting there being less than five goals in the game. The actual result was 2-1 to Anaheim so the console had picked the winner and the amount to be lower than five nets.

Buffalo vs NY Rangers

The calculated result in this game was meant to have been 4-2 to the New York Rangers. The actual score was 2-1 to Buffalo. I had placed a bet on there being over five goals. Even if I had backed the winner I still would have lost.

Pros & Cons

This method has it's faults. The main one being that it didn't generate a profit!
The plus side is that there were two hits out of three so it cannot be deemed a comlete failure.
Another thing to take into account is the game had the teams from 1998 so nine years of changes must be acknowledged.
I am sure there are people studying at universities across the world using this in their dissertations on possibilities and random number generation.
It is an idea I may explore in the future with up to date games and, on a personal level, a better understanding of the sport.