The New England Patriots are favored by 3 points over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl 51, and there are no shortage of expert predictions on what's expected to be a competitive and exciting game.
One predictor that has an especially good track record of picking the winning team is the "Madden NFL" video game franchise.
Most video game simulations of big sporting events such as the Super Bowl are done a single time, and while that's subject to the same randomness that one game presents in sport, it doesn't tell the whole story. If a large number of simulations are run, then the actual team that the advanced sim engine believes to have the advantage in a given matchup can be identified.
MORE: Super Bowl 51 picks, odds, predictions
For Super Bowl 51, we ran more than 100 simulations in "Madden NFL 17" with the most up-to-date rosters. The Falcons have the edge, according to the video game, but only by a razor-thin margin.
Atlanta won 52 percent of the simulations and did so with average score of 34-23. In the 48 percent of victories for New England, the average final score was a similar 33-23.
Across all simulations the Falcons averaged 28.7 points and the Patriots 28.1 points. With an over/under of 59, the best bet to make based on this data appears to be the under, as opposed to the game itself, which is clearly a toss-up. Hopefully that'll mean a great game for Sunday, when we'll find out just how close "Madden" was to predicting the final outcome.
Bryan Wiedey posts sports gaming news and analysis daily at Pastapadre.com, is co-founder of the sports gaming site HitThePass.com, hosts the "Press Row Podcast" and be reached on Twitter @Pastapadre.