Forecasting number of corner kicks taken in association football using overdispersed distribution

Abstract

This paper presents a novel compound Poisson regression model to forecast number of corner kicks taken in association football. Corner kick taken events are often decisive in the match outcome and embody serial correlation and clustered pattern. Providing parameter estimates with intuitive interpretation, a class of compound Poisson distribution including a Bayesian implementation of geometric-Poisson distribution is introduced. Apart from introducing a new statistical framework, the utilisation of cross-market data, target encoding techniques and treatment to the data-rich-data-poor problem to enhance the model predictability are also discussed.