The mystical world of psychic sport predictions

Ikram the Robot has chosen Afghanistan as the ICC World Cup 2015 winner

While many have gambled to predict the outcomes of sporting events, others have turned to soothsayers and astrologers to help them pick the winning choice in important events.

In recent years, animals and robots with supposed psychic powers have come to the fore for predicting outcomes. We select five who have had an incredible success with predicting results.

1. Paul the octopus

Paul the octopus correctly chooses Spain to win the final this Sunday PHOTO:AFP

FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa observed the first time ever a mega sports event was forecasted by a psychic octopus “Paul”, with a success rate of 85 per cent- which includes choosing Spain as the champion. Two boxes of food bearing national flags were placed in front of the bewitched octopus for the prediction.

2. Nelly the elephant

Nelly kicks the ball in to either of the goal posts to predict the winner. PHOTO: AFP

Nelly is no rookie. He came in to the highlight during the Euro Football Championship 2012. He also has said to have predicted the correct UEFA Champions League winner of 2013, Bayern Munich along with 30 of 33 results correctly from the women's FIFA World Cup in 2006, the men's FIFA World Cup in 2010 and the Euro 2012, Nelly seems to be nothing short of a football 'pundit.'

3. Bob the Sloth

Bob choosing Germany to win the final. PHOTO: Toronto Zoo

A sloth at the Toronto zoo, Bob has animal predictions has challenging results with 70 per cent success rate. The simple sloth does not do anything fancy like the ball kicking elephant he just reaches out for one of two flags he is presented with and got Germany's right as well.

4. Shaheen the camel from Dubai

A screengrab of camel Shaheen from Dubai.

The leader of animal predictors after Paul was this camel. Shaheen is 19-of-29 on his FIFA World Cup 2010 picks, giving him a respectable 66 per cent success rate, far behind his predecessor, the legendary Paul.

5. "Ikram" the robot

A screengrab of the robot Ikram

The last predictor on the list is not an animal but a robot The mega sports event, ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 is “blessed” with the fortuneteller robot to predict the winners with great doubts on its accuracy as it chose Afghanistan as the champion- therefore no success so far. Eduardo Sandoval, a University of Canterbury HITLab PhD student in New Zealand, has developed the robot's prediction software and says “cricket is an unexpected game” over its prediction.

There have been others apart from these 'psychics' such as Ukraine's Fred the ferret and a pig called Funtik. The psychic list also includes llamas.