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>Olympic Curling -- Business Prof Reveals Winning
>Strategies
>Library: LIF-POP
>Keywords: OLYMPICS CURLING SPORTS STATISTICS
>PROBABILITY MATH BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
>Description: Bucknell business professor Keith
>Willoughby, an Olympic curling fanatic and
>self-proclaimed "math geek," has done sophisticated
>statistical analyses of championship curling games...
A simple application of game theory (this *is* an economics forum) to a curling match would have produced a similar answer. I know this may be way too quaint, to actually apply non-cooperative game theory to ...well... a non-cooperative game. Since the person who gets to throw first is determined by the last person to score (similar to golf) and the person who throws last has a better chance to score - I'd rather be leading by one without last rock. If can I hold my opponent scoreless I win, if I hold him/her to 1 point we play an extra end but I retain last rock until the end of the game. It is pretty hard not to score a point in a tie game when you have last rock advantage, especially at the level of play you'll see in the Olympics.