Artificial Intelligence and Sp...

I know that many sports fans, myself included, have been wondering if A.I. (artificial intelligence) will effect sports book betting. As I mentioned some months ago I ran the NCAA Tournament Bracket thru an A.I. program and it was a dismal failure. The system picked Baylor to win I believe and in a group of five brackets it faired a dismal fourth. Not a very good debut if you ask me. Needless to say, all of mankind is in an uproar about Article Intelligence. Major corporations and powerful government institutions are holding congressional meetings and forming discussion groups on how to regulate it and control it. Some say it will be the beginning of the end of humankind, at least as we know it. As for me, I’m more concerned with wether or not it can predict winners in my football pool on a weekly basis during the upcoming season or which horses will win at the track tommow. When it comes to football and horse racing humanity will have to wait.

Another Wimbledon Championship has come, and gone. In an epic final that lasted nearly five hours Carlos Alcaraz defeated reigning champion Novak Djokovic. A jam packed stadium overflowing with European royalty and the uber rich and famous witnessed one for the ages in a match that seemed to be over early as Djokovic took the first set easily. Deciding it may be a quick event after all, many spectators took advantage of the break to grab a second helping of strawberries and cream washed down by 50 dollar glasses of champagne. However, Alcaraz found his game and battled back against one of the greatest tennis players to ever play the game to take the match three sets to two. It was a huge comeback win for the 20 year old Spaniard and quite an upset with the book makers. By the way, my A.I. program had Alcaraz winning the match 55% to Djokovic’s 45%. Maybe there’s something to this whole Artificial Intelligence thing after all.

As I’m sure many of you out there have noticed, the sports media world has been turned upside down in recent days.ESPN is literally a shell of itself with all the lay offs that have occurred. Shows that were once a daily staple for me have simply vanished along with some very familiar and long tenured personalities. As I spend a good part of my day listening to sports talk on air and on television I’m wondering if ESPN as we know it will survive. ESPN has a very bad habit of fixing something that’s not broken. It may be time for a new sports media package to hit the airwaves. We all know that Amazon has entered the fray by purchasing airing rights to several NFL games and UTube TV has taken over the Sunday NFL Package from Direct TV, so I’m wondering what’s next? A new generation of sports show hosts may be in the offerings from Amazon and UTube TV. New faces in my opinion may be a welcome addition to the daily and weekly menu of sports talk radio and television. I may have mentioned two words in a previous article and I’ll say it again here, Tom Brady. I’m just throwing it out there. We all know Tom Terrific has a huge contract with FOX so let’s wait a see where it will all lead.

After spending the better part of my Sunday on my couch watching tennis, I was happy to continue the less then productive day by watching the official introduction of Lionel Messi to MLS Football and Inter Miami. I have to say I was significantly impressed. Having seen the stadium that Inter Miami plays in during daylight hours I was expecting a rather disappointing display however growing darkness, an intense rain and lightning weather pattern and some fancy fireworks seemed to give it all a visual boost. You couldn’t see the car chop shops, the broken down taco stands and quick-food beer marts around the stadium. Messi looked actually happy to be there and I have to say the crowd was rocking. Messi speaks no English so his words were lost to me. Hopefully someone can introduce him to a Rosetta Stone package. Again, ESPN was a no show at this event as the deal inked between Inter Miami and the worlds greatest soccer player is an Apple TV brain child, so look for Apple to be another addition to the sports media empire. Go figure.

It’s been an extremely hot summer in Florida. I used to spend quite a bit of my day working out in the sun even during the summer months and I’ve learned that the heat in Florida can be brutal but that hasn’t dampened my love for football. In the coming weeks both the college and professional football leagues will begin working out their teams in what has been one of the hottest summers on record. One more month of anticipation and longing and the season will be upon us. My present plan is to ween myself and everyone else back into football mode one article at a time. Whenever I see Street and Smiths “Pro Football Preview” on the grocery store magazine racks I know football season is almost here. The magazine even smells like football, I swear. All the teams, all the rosters, all the games in one nice little package. It makes for great season long reading and lives on my coffee table until the Super Bowl! I figure this year all I’ll need is that and my trusty A.I. App and I can begin building that condo in Lake Tahoe. Play On!!

Kev