Have you ever wondered whether attending your favourite team’s games is what is encouraging their latest run of bad luck? Well, luckily for you, there is now somewhere for you to go to test this theory. The xJ (expected jinx) calculator has been created by Opta and they have teamed up with Xbox and also current ‘King of the Jungle’ Angry Ginge to promote it. Let’s kick things off with the trailer below.
Here’s some more information on the initiative from Xbox and Opta “Xbox has teamed up with leading sports data analysts Opta to develop the first ever fan-based football statistic that puts science behind superstition: introducing xJ (expected jinx). Developed in partnership with Opta’s Director of Analytics Jonny Whitmore and powered by Opta’s Live Win Probability data, the xJ analyses how and where fans watch football to measure the impact their presence could be having on the results.
The xJ score is the first-ever attempt to quantify superstition in football. Fans can upload their matchday viewing data from throughout the season and work out if they impacted their team’s results positively or negatively, and by how much.
The fans that rank among the highest xJ scores will be in with a chance to officially be named football’s unluckiest fan. While it may be unwanted title, the fan will be offered an exclusive Xbox sponsorship featuring all of the games and hardware required to remove themselves from the game entirely for the rest of the season. No watching. No checking scores. Just playing EA SPORTS FC to help their team remain on the right side of the good luck coin and achieve success.”
Jonny Whitmore, Director of Analytics at Opta had this to say about xJ “We know football fans are desperate to see their team succeed, relishing the bragging rights that come with topping the league and the stats leaderboards. We’ve developed this new statistic to hold up a mirror to all the supporters who think they may be inadvertently damaging their team’s chances of winning, even if it comes at the cost of watching their team play.”
There we have it. You can head to the xJ calculator here and see how your stats match up. Is your presence bad for Brighton, or perhaps terrific for Tottenham? Find out now and see if you are football’s unluckiest fan.
Will you be trying the xJ calculator? Let us know in the XboxEra Forums or make some noise in the lively XboxEra Community Discord Server. If you’re looking to be a bigger part of an amazing community, then either choice is a good one!
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