Machine Learning the Harness Track: A Temporal Investigation of Race History on Prediction

Abstract

Machine learning techniques have shown their usefulness in accurately predicting greyhound races. Many of the studies within this domain focus on two things; win-only wagers and using a very particular combination of race history. Our study investigates altering these properties and studying the results. In particular we found a race history combination that optimizes our S&C Racing system's predictions on seven different wager types. From this, S&C Racing posted an impressive 50.44% accuracy in selecting winning wagers with a payout of $609.34 and a betting return of $10.06 per dollar wagered.