The world cup at Globant: Betting Game and Globot

In honor of the competitive spirit of the World Cup, Globant Labs developed an internal betting game in which Globers could enter their predictions to every World Cup game and compete among their colleagues.
Even though the World Cup was, for most of us, unpredictable, Globers were brave enough to take their chances. A very special player even joined the competition: the AI Globot! So, how did we introduce a bot in the betting game? That is to say, how were there were two machines playing against each other at the same time?
Globant is well known for its innovation, and at Globant, we recognize great ideas and the Globers that make them happen. This is how the Globot AI (Glober + Robot + Artificial Intelligence) came to be developed by the Big Data Studio and the AI Studio.
Globot AI is an Artificial Intelligence engine that uses statistical simulation to predict the results of the 64 matches of the World Cup, based on the data of 18,000 players who are part of FIFA 2018, as well as almost 75 features of each player.
Globot AI made predictions about each game and got 58 points, climbing the leaderboard and getting to second place among all those betting at Globant.
With the same number of points, Globers María Jose Basavilbaso, Javier Miranda, Ignacio Escudero, and David Palacio Vargas followed the Globot on the leaderboard.
The winner was Glober Juan David Marin, from Medellín, Colombia, with a difference of 1 point.
More than 2,000 Globers participated in the betting game, but none of them imagined competing against a robot. But at Globant, everything’s possible!
Congratulations to the Glober Juan David Marin, who won and bet the AI Bot, and to the whole team that developed the AI Globot!