University mathematicians calculate how Foxes won the English Premier League
Mathematicians at the University have generated the perfect formula to describe the historic achievement of Leicester City Football Club who won the English Premier League with 5000-1 odds at the start of the season.
Dominic Cortis and Jeremy Levesley, from the Department of Mathematics, worked out the formula after Leicester played the final game of the season, drawing 1-1 at Chelsea.
Just as Leicester City has demonstrated on the pitch, the clever clogs at the University have shown that anything is possible and have used numbers – with the benefit of hindsight and some tampering with the stats - to convey the incredible success that has catapulted the team – and the city- to global fame.
Dominic and Jeremy added several factors to create the formula – even including the world-renowned discovery of King Richard III by University of Leicester archaeologists as the club achieved its success after the reinterment of the King in the city.
Other factors that came into play included match statistics, betting information, the team’s total wage bill and the value of the ‘Vardyquake’.
Dominic said: “Working this out was easy peasy but the traditional disclaimer must apply here - this was meant just as a fun exercise with some major stats.”
Jeremy said: “No prediction model could have foreseen this conclusion at the start of the season. With the benefit of hindsight, significant bending of the laws of statistics and some convenient rounding we produced an equation that calculates the number of points obtained this season.
“We look forward to welcome European teams to the city of Leicester as well as students to work on actual prediction models.”