As long ago as last December, Reuters Breakingviews used statistics and analytics to predict the World Cup champion, declaring that Germany would be the victor. On Sunday, that forecast proved to be accurate, when Germany beat Argentina in the final.
Many media outlets and some financial institutions had also braved the World Cup prediction challenge, but the consensus was that Brazil would triumph. Using the “Soccernomics” calculator, Reuters Breakingviews crunched numbers such as players’ transfer value, countries’ economic factors and demographics to predict that Germany would take home the trophy.
