Brazil, Germany and Argentina Highest Ranking FIFA World Cup Teams By Bloomberg Sports Analytics

Brazil was the clear winner of the first-ever Bloomberg Sports 2014 FIFA World Cup analytics ratings followed by Germany, Argentina and defending 2010 FIFA South Africa Champion Spain. Bloomberg Sports (BSports), the world leaders in sports analytic technology, today revealed scientifically-calculated ratings for every nation in this summer’s World Cup. The Sports Techie community blog thanks BSports for sharing this Big Data analytical look at every national team who qualified for World Cup Brazil with our global readers. Colombia and Belgium earned the numbers to be nations to watch as championship match game contenders.

World Cup 2014 Predictions & Results
Objectively ranking every team in this summer’s World Cup, BSports indicate that the host nation Brazil are the strongest nation in the tournament; consistent with the sentiment among many bookmakers, experts and fans. The BSports Match Analysis application is another useful tool for fans, gamblers and citizens to consider using at your discretion.

Spain, the current World Cup holders and No.1 ranked team in FIFA’s rankings are rated the 4th strongest team with a BSports Rating of 0.75. Ahead of them are Germany (0.96) and Argentina (0.92). Included in the top five BSports ranked nations is Belgium, currently ranked 12th in FIFA’s official world rankings. Colombia, with a rating of 0.47 are ranked above Italy (0.40), Uruguay (0.39), England (0.35) and France (0.35). The United States are ranked 16th, one place ahead of 2018 World Cup hosts Russia and two ahead of Ghana, the highest ranked African team in the competition.

How the rankings were calculated
Following the World Cup Finals draw and the completion of all qualifying rounds, BSports assigned each nation with a distinctive rating for both attack and defense, combining numerous data points such as form from qualifiers, previous World Cup performance and squad talent among other factors. The offensive rating is a measure of a team’s probability of scoring goals, whilst the defensive rating is a measure of the prospect of that team preventing goals. This objective analysis, calculated using a proprietary model built by Bloomberg Sports mathematicians and engineers, is combined to offer a unique power rating for each nation.

BSports has been able to apply these ratings to simulate each match of the tournament over 100,000 times in order to provide an accurate projection for every potential outcome of the World Cup. BSports full projections for the tournament, including in-depth analytics and forecasts for each team and matchup can be found at http://www.bloomberg.com/worldcup

About Bloomberg Sports
Launched in 2010, Bloomberg Sports (BSports) takes the technology developed by Bloomberg, the leading global provider in data and analytics, and applies it to the vast data analysis opportunities in sports. BSports delivers services for teams, broadcasters and athletes and boasts a consumer tool for European football, “Match Analysis,”; a powerful predictive and analytic tool forecasting game results and scores to help bettors ‘beat the bookie’.  BSports has also developed pre and post-game commentary packs along with on-air graphics for broadcasters including Sky Sports, Channel 4, Turner and Fox in a number of sports. Bloomberg Sports was named by SportsPro (2014) as one of “50 Companies Shaping World Sport”, by Fast Company (2013/14) as Finalist for the “Most Innovative Technology Companies in Sport”, and by Mashable as one of the “Five Most Innovative Sports Brands for 2012”. For more information go to bsports.com.

Sports Techie, The BSports website has four data-centric features worthy of incorporating into your World Cup data set.

• BSports Predictions: BSports projects Brazil will win the World Cup.
• My Predictions: Chart your own World Cup prediction; BSports odds will show how likely it is.
• Results: Track the latest World Cup results — from group stage through the final.
• Schedule: Dates and times of each match in your local time zone.

The Netherlands impressive straight up (.50) rating makes them another strong team to factor in as a possible overall winner. Ecuador has a solid (.39) estimated points ranking putting them in the deep sleeper category. Japan likes being the underdog with a rating of (.35) and will look to springboard off their 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup Championship.

Of course, crunching stats and using algorithms to calculate performance and outcomes in not an exact science. Making plays is the name of the game, as is staying healthy and riding “Big Mo” to victories. If luck is real, factor that is too. BSports wants you to consider the likelihood of winning or tying based on their sports technology application and so do I.

Bottom line, the host nation has immense pressure to win at all costs but will that be enough incentive to unseat the defending champions from Spain. Yes, says Bloomberg visual data.

Let us know who you think wins it all as a blog comment and on our social media network links below, and thank you for sharing this blog.

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