The Denver Broncos will win this weekend’s Super Bowl XLVIII contest against the Seattle Seahawks, enterprise software firm SAP AG is predicting.
The German-based business software vendor did what any football fan looking to make a wager on this Sunday’s grid iron matchup might do, and tapped the wealth of public data available in NFL.com’s statistics database to weigh each team’s performance in the offence and defence departments this season. What makes SAP’s approach different from your average Budweiser-drinking gambler is its solutions for analytics software suite that’s tuned to crunch big data with its HANA in-memory analytics system.
The Broncos will beat the Seahawks thanks to their passing game, SAP predicts. Noted as the best overall offensive team in the NFL this season, the orange-clad Broncos passing game led by quarterback Peyton Manning “blows the Seahawks” away. The Broncos also have the advantage when it comes to special teams, meaning they might win better field position through better kick-off and punt returns. In fact, an analysis of all the factors that could win the big game show that special teams is likely to be the most important aspect of the game.
This isn’t all to say the Seahawks won’t make the game interesting. Countering the Broncos league-leading offence, Seattle has the best defence in the league and have done a much better job at preventing opponents from scoring than the Broncos have. The Seahawks may be able to get their own offence chugging with a running game that slightly edges the Broncos.
If SAP is right and the Broncos do win, it would make most Americans watching the game happy. SAP says 44 states show a higher positive sentiment for the Broncos compared to just 6 states for the Seahawks, according to a social media analysis.
But don’t go and lay down any big bets on the game just yet. You may also want to consider that the Seahawks have a roster of players that have never been to the Super Bowl before and the Broncos have several players that have. Since 1990, the team with the greater number of players with championship experience have won the game just eight times.
SAP didn’t provide any guesses as to a final score.