Your First Model in 10 Minutes

A walkthrough for building, backtesting, and (optionally) publishing your first model on Sharksnip Tinker.

No prior ML experience required. If you can read a spreadsheet, you can do this.

TL;DR for the degens

• 10 minutes, free, in your browser. No Python install, no GPU, no rented compute.
• You'll train an NFL spread cover model on 5 years of real games.
• At the end you can either keep it private or publish it to the marketplace and start earning.
• If your first try sucks, that's normal. Hit Optimize Weights (Sharp call) and let the platform tune it for you.

This is the data shape Tinker hands your model: every play, every down, every team, every red-zone snap. You don't fetch it; you check the boxes.

What we're going to build

A simple NFL spread prediction model. It will:

• Take recent team performance, line movement, and rest days as inputs
• Output a probability that the favorite covers the spread
• Be backtested against 5 years of historical games
• Be ready to publish to the marketplace (if you want)

This isn't going to be a world-beating model. It's going to be a working starter — and the starting point for forking, modifying, and improving.