Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39888863›Full record

ArticlePloS one2025

Goal-line oracles: Exploring accuracy of wisdom of the crowd for football predictions.

Jens Koed Madsen

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Jens Koed MadsenDepartment of Psychological and Behavioural Sciences, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0003-2405-8496

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Football's inherent volatility and low-scoring nature present unique challenges for predicting outcomes. This study investigates the efficacy of Wisdom of the Crowd in forecasting football match outcomes as well as expected goals (XG) across a Premier League season. Participants predicted team goal counts, which were then compared to actual expected goals (XG) and match results. Results across 760 team predictions reveal that while Wisdom of the Crowd accurately predicts XG on average, it overestimates 'big-6' teams and underestimates others, hinting at inherent biases. Notably, however, collective crowd predictions outperform individual estimates consistently, affirming the power of collective intelligence. Furthermore, when tested against betting odds, Wisdom of the Crowd demonstrates limited profitability, indicating its potential as a supplementary rather than sole prediction tool. These findings underscore the nuanced dynamics of football prediction and highlight the utility of collective wisdom in navigating its complexities. Overall, this study contributes insights into crowd prediction dynamics and underscores its potential in football analytics, shedding light on its implications for decision-making and understanding group behaviour in sports forecasting contexts.

Indexed as

Athletic PerformanceGoalsSoccerAdultDecision MakingForecastingHumansMaleYoung Adult

Identifiers

PMID39888863
PMCPMC11785260

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.