A dissertation on the modelling of football data for gaming companies has won the second edition of the Betsson Malta Student Gaming Award. This annual competition recognises the best research at university level on the online gaming industry and promotes awareness and increases understanding on issues pertaining to the industry such as responsible gaming, technological development and the business and legal framework.
The second edition of the award was supported by the Lotteries and Gaming Authority, The University of Malta, The Malta University Student Council and was sponsored by Malta-based i-gaming company Betsson.
This year’s finalists were Julia De Marco with “A Comparative Analysis of the Place of Supply Rules: The Future of Online Gaming in Malta”; Renzo Galea with “Modelling Football Data”; and Karl Gonzi with “A Critical Analysis of the Remote Gaming Regulations 2004 and Suggested Improvements by Reference to Local and Foreign Legislation”.
Mr Galea was announced the winner with his dissertation that investigates the Bayesian modeling performance for football data. He used real data from the Italian Serie A league to illustrate the Bayesian modeling performance and proofed the possibility of predicting outcomes.
“We have not attempted to predict, as we thought that it is still premature,” Mr Galea explained to i-Tech. “In addition I do want to outline that unless there is another Paul (the octopus), no mathematical model will be 100 per cent correct. Otherwise these i-gaming companies which thoroughly depend on risk and probabilities would have never existed.”
Mr Galea recognised the role of technology in the i-gaming industry and the impact it has on its development.
“In my opinion technology is a fundamental tool which brought about radical changes in the world of gaming. A typical example is when it comes to solving difficult and long computational problems. Another interesting improvement which I myself encountered during my dissertation regards the facility with which greater amounts of data can be handled when analysing situations.” Mr Galea is excited about the opportunities in the local i-gaming industry. “I think that the i-gaming industry is a real goldmine. The actual situation in Malta is profitable for both the gaming companies and government. Above all, the amount of jobs that are being created within this particular sector is something very positive, especially in IT-related areas,” confirmed the winner of the award.
Henrik Persson, CEO of Betsson, praised Mr Galea’s dissertation and the role such research can play in this industry.
“The winning submission gave a detailed review of how a certain statistical method can be used to predict football result outcomes with a very high accuracy. For any gaming business involved in betting having excellent tools is a must and this could easily be used and added to our toolbox.
“We hope that the Betsson student award will promote the idea of a possible career within the gaming industry and that students will consider gaming when deciding on their thesis. The finalists of this year’s award are all gainfully employed within or services closely related to the gaming industry.
We are experiencing tremendous growth and are looking at how we can maximise our positive output in the communities we are working in with a long-term perspective,” said Betsson’s CEO.