Millions of NFL fans have completed their fantasy football drafts by now. The NFL schedule was set months ago and the season kicks off on Thursday night, with the Minnesota Vikings taking on the New Orleans Saints in prime time.

For many fantasy fans, the player-drafting strategies start with the best intentions: I’ll do my research, check out some pro football websites and make a list of the players I really want. However, when draft day finally happens and they’ve neglected to do any research, that “strategy” quickly degrades into player selections based on “gut feelings” that may or may not correspond to actual statistical evidence, current news or historical player trends. (The five beers don’t help matters, either.)

IBM’s Hetal Thaker bucks a couple of common stereotypes regarding football viewership and fantasy football leagues and uses predictive analytics to draft her way to success. She models qualitative and quantitative information to predict the number of touchdowns a receiver is going to get or number of total yards that a quarterback is going to throw.

In an interview with CIO, she shares advice on analyzing data on running backs and running your business.

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