Tools of the Trade: NFLGameData

The latest newsletter from KCSN Sports Data Scientist, Joseph Hefner

In this weeks edition of Tools of the Trade, I present to you one of the better sites for data before the games have begun. NFLGameData was created and is maintained by Lee Sharpe, who is also a major contributor to the nflverse datasets. NFLGameData provides quite a bit of information about every game since 2002.

The home page defaults to the current year and week of the NFL schedule. For now, in the offseason, it defaults to the 2024 week 1 games. It provides a great deal of betting information for each team, and for each game. Betting information is good to know, because it gives a reasonably objective perspective on what outsiders think of a team or a matchup.

Sometimes we can get caught up in the hype of our team, or downplay an opponent, and Vegas odds can help to recalibrate our expectations. Vegas odds can also have some issues, most noticeable when they are trying to get “even money” on both sides of an outcome. Nevertheless, they can be useful barometers.