The New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons — the two best teams in the National Football League — will square off on Sunday in Super Bowl LI, and Microsoft’s Bing search engine is predicting which one will be crowned champions.
According to Bing’s number crunching, the Patriots have a 52.3 percent chance of winning, as of Thursday.
Bing applies machine-learning web data to inform its predictions on everything from sporting events to political contests. Its “traditional statistical models” are coupled with “social listening and search analysis.”
Last year, Bing predicted New England would repeat as Super Bowl champs before the NFL Playoffs even started. Denver ended up beating Carolina in that contest.
Whether or not Patriots quarterback Tom Brady can earn a fifth Super Bowl ring and vanquish deflategaters in the process remains to be seen. After all, Bing predicted — along with almost every other major poll in the country — that Hillary Clinton was a 90-percent lock to defeat Donald Trump in the presidential election.
The Super Bowl, from Houston’s NRG Stadium, airs at 3:30 p.m. PT on Fox. Here’s how to stream the big game for free, without a cable subscription.
