For example, let’s take Tom Brady, who is playing against Cincinnati this week and is known has one of the best quarterbacks because of his accuracy and decision-making. In order to find comparable players to Tom, numberFire evaluates his statistics and compares that data to players in the past in order to find a past QB who plays in a similar style and has performed with similar statistics. For Tom Brady in 2010, his closest comparable is Brett Favre in 2007.
NumberFire founder Nik Bonaddio says that the player is only one part of the equation. His site also factors in the team (Patriots), the defense he’s going up against (Cincinnati) and the situation (the start of the season so players may be rusty, off the field distractions such as injuries). numberFire also evaluates games and situations to find comparable situations. In this case, says Bonaddio, the closest comparable is San Diego vs. Atlanta in 2004.
NumberFire will be free for the first month (as to prove to people that the site can beat the predictions that platforms like ESPN provide, says Bonaddio), and will then charge a monthly subscription ($7.99/mo) or a flat-fee for the rest of the year ($19.99).
One interesting tidbit about Bonaddio: Before he demoed numberFire at TechCrunch Disrupt, he was on a primetime episode of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” hosted by Regis Philbin and won $100,000. He subsequently quit his job to develop and launch this project.
8 8
Authors: Leena Rao