Fantasy Pro12 2015/16

I looked at creating a fantasy game but the issue I had was data and figuring out the relative cost of every player. Getting a list of players is fine, and getting the weekly data can be done easily enough. But how do you decide who costs what?

I also wasn't sure if I would get an angry letter from the Pro12 for IP infringement.

This one seems to have the same problem. For example Michael Bent is more expensive than Cian Healy.

Ian Keatley costs the same as Jackson and Sexton.

Pienaar costs 30% more than Murray. Duncan Williams costs more than Murray!

Mike McComish costs the same as Sean O'Brien.

irishbucsfan wrote: »

The weekly data is actually the only real difficulty. The costing of players for these things is actually quite straight forward, you make a prediction of their stats (using historical numbers as a baseline) and then cost them based on their total predicted value during the season. As Thomond said, once you do that you find the Interationals aren't worth much but someone like Isa would be worth a ton. Or even better, don't cost anything and do it with a draft! :pac:

The data is actually your real difficulty. If you want to do it right you need to pay for access to a proper API run by someone who is getting official statistics. I'm not sure how much that costs and I'm not sure who provides that outside of the big names, I would question whether the revenue you could produce in advertising would cover the cost of acquiring reliable data. Once the data source is sorted the rest of it is just design and dev time.

The data depends on what the rules of your game are. Basic data can be entered manually each week no problem from the match report data on the pro 12 site. There's only 6 games a week which isn't a lot.

irishbucsfan wrote: »

I suppose it depends how much you want to actually track. If youre manually inputting the data on the Pro 12 site then you can track tries/kicking but I think ideally you want to track everything, I remember the Super XV did it that way and it was much better!

What I had in my head was something like:

Gaining points
+4 points for try scored by a back
+5 points for try scored by a forward
+2 for all players if team gets TBP
+1 for all players if team gets LBP
+3 for full match
+1 if subbed on / off
+2 for penalty

*2 points for captain


Losing points
-3 for yellow card
-6 for red card

*2 for captain


The problem is ultimately the intricacy between the different positions. Saying that forwards would get 5 points for a try is ok but a bit basic. Maybe it needs to be broken down more so a tight 5 player gets more points for a try than a back row player.


The selection rule I had in my head was:

• Pick 15 players
• Pick 1 captain
• Must pick at least 1 player from each team
• The remaining three players must play for clubs in three different countries (i.e. your 13, 14th and 15th picks can't play for Munster, Leinster and Ulster)


Never actually got round to doing it though. Too busy!

Team selected

Evans (Scarlets)
Parry (Ospreys)
Bent (Leinster)
Foley (Munster)
Muldowney (Connacht)
Navidi (Cardiff)
McLaughlin (Leinster)
Stander (Munster)
Marmion (Connacht)
Davies (Ospreys)
Gilroy (Ulster)
Te'o (Leinster)
Marshall (Ulster)
Trimble (Ulster)
Evans (Ospreys)

b.gud wrote: »

Haven't looked at this so not exactly sure if that is your 15 man squad for the next few weeks or specific to this weekend. If it's for this weekend Muldowney isn't playing, Roux and Browne are starting and Marshall is on the bench

Tis for the season.

My team would be more varied if it wasn't a world cup year, I'm just not as familiar with the fringe players in the non-Irish sides.