Nested Zero Inflated Generalized Poisson Regression for FIFA World Cup 2022

Abstract: This article is devoted to the forecast of the FIFA World Cup 2022 via nested zero-inflated generalized Poisson regression. Our regression model incorporates the Elo points of the participating teams, the location of the matches and the of team-specific skills in attack and defense as covariates. The proposed model allows predictions in terms of probabilities in order to quantify the chances for each team to reach a certain stage of the tournament. We use Monte Carlo simulations for estimating the outcome of each single match of the tournament, from which we are able to simulate the whole tournament itself. The model is fitted on all football games of the participating teams since 2016 weighted by date and importance. Validation with previous tournaments and comparison with other Poisson models are given.