TITLE:
Standardization of Winning Streaks in Sports
AUTHORS:
Patrick R. McMullen
KEYWORDS:
Streak, Statistic, Variation
JOURNAL NAME:
Applied Mathematics,
Vol.8 No.3,
March
27,
2017
ABSTRACT: This research provides some metrics to better summarize streaks in sporting events with binary outcomes. In sporting events, information is often lost when “statistics” are presented regarding “streaks,” and whether or not certain teams or players have been recently been successful or unsuccessful. This usually leads to the presentation of metrics with no common baseline. This particular research effort provides statistics to capture the information regarding recent success or lack thereof, in a more standardized manner. To illustrate the presented metrics, data from the 2016 seasons for the American sports leagues National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball are used in an attempt to standardize streaks.