It’s that time of the year again! Payback for all the instances you were picked last when choosing teams. Redemption for all the missed kicks, headers, and tackles when you were a kid. A chance for nerds everywhere to finally prove their worth on the football field. Fantasy Football, that is…
If you’re interested in learning about mathematically-optimal strategies for Fantasy Football (and who isn’t?), here’s a lecture on the topic given by Josh Bull from the Mathematical Institute at Oxford.
You may rightly ask, what do scientists/geeks/nerds know about Fantasy Football anyway? Actually, more than you might think. Josh, for example, won the 2019-2020 Premier League Fantasy Football competition, partly using mathematical modelling strategies carried over from his work on cancer cells.
As Jack Black says (or sings) in the School of Rock:
Math is a wonderful thing
Math is a really cool thing
So get off your act let’s do some math
Math, math, math, math, math
Imran Idris 