It’s the end of the world blog as we know it
This will be my final post to the Smartodds Loves Statistics blog. I started the blog in 2018 with the aim of providing a channel, mostly for people...
The L.I.E. detector
This is a follow-up to the previous blog post which described a series of puzzles based on a description of the recruitment process at Smartodds. Of...
The L.I.E.
Introduction The recruitment process for positions at Smartodds has changed over the years. In the early days it used to work like this. There'd be...
Friend of a Friend
Here's a weird thing: it's likely that your friends have got, on average, more friends than you. But it's not just you: even your friends' friends...
Buttered Toast
Sod's Law The buttered toast phenomenon is the observation that when you drop a slice of buttered toast, more often than not it will inconveniently...
Hey Jude
Don't make it bad How good is Jude Bellingham? No, really, how good is he? Suppose you'd watched his games for England at Euro 2024 and had...
The Endless Match
Hello Wimbledon and happy birthday to the longest tennis match in history. Played between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut, this Wimbledon first round...
Rage Against the Machine
The Post Office Scandal The Post Office scandal has been described as the 'largest miscarriage of justice in British history'. There are many...
Guess Who?
Guess Who? Part 1 A young boy grows up loving his local football club. He goes to as many matches as he can, home and away. In later life he builds...
A Magic Wand
Farewell So, farewell to Daniel Kahneman, who died aged 90 this week. I've mentioned before that in a previous Smartodds offsite, when Matthew...
Expensive tastes
The dinner conundrum You've been invited to dinner and feel like you should take a bottle of wine. Is it ok just to buy a cheap bottle of wine, or...
Fatal Attraction
Talent and Attractiveness Do attractive people tend to be less talented? Look at the following graph which shows the relationship between...