Sports analytics are collections of relevant historical statistics that can provide a competitive advantage to a team or individual by helping to inform players, coaches and other staff and help facilitate decision-making both during and prior to sporting events. The term "sports analytics" was popularized in mainstream sports culture following the release of the 2011 film Moneyball . In this film, Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt ) relies heavily on the use of baseball analytics to build a competitive team on a minimal budget, building upon and extending the established practice of Sabermetrics .
50-599: Champion Data is a sports data and analytics company based in Melbourne, Australia . It has been the official statistical data provider to the Australian Football League (AFL) since 1999. Principally rooted in Australian rules football , the company was created by former Carlton footballer Ted Hopkins and his wife Angelika Oehme in 1995. Hopkins' vision was to tabulate statistical data from
100-553: A fraction of the price that a big name pitcher may require. When Beane's Athletics began to achieve success, other major league teams took notice. The second team to adopt a similar approach was the Boston Red Sox , who in 2003 made Theo Epstein the interim general manager. Epstein, who remains the youngest general manager to ever be hired in MLB, came into the position without any professional playing experience, highly irregular at
150-460: A largely analytical background when they hired assistant general manager Kyle Dubas in 2014. Dubas, similar to Theo Epstein in MLB, has never suited up in a professional game and relies on the numbers generated by players on a nightly basis both now and in the past to make decisions. The PGA Tour collects vast amounts of data throughout the season. These statistics track each shot a player takes in tournament play, collecting information on how far
200-471: A minimalist budget, Beane relied on sabermetrics , a form of sports analytics, to evaluate players and make personnel decisions. Understanding the importance of getting runners on base, Beane focussed on acquiring players with a high on base percentage with the logic that teams with a higher on base percentage are more likely to score runs. He was also able to achieve success on a shoestring budget by acquiring overlooked starting pitchers, often getting them for
250-472: A multi-channel sports media organization employing a team of statisticians and writers who publish New York Times Best Selling books and host weekly radio shows and podcasts . The MLB has set the benchmark in sports analytics for a number of years, with some of the game's brightest minds having never set foot into the heat of a major or minor league baseball game. Theo Epstein of the Chicago Cubs
300-453: A number of years, successfully betting against the line 56% (575–453) of the time in college football, a significant rate as a winning percentage above 52.4% is considered profitable. With the number of statistics so openly available to fans, Stoll combines a number of different statistics such as, home and away records, record vs divisional/non-divisional teams, rush yards per rush, etc., to make educated picks that have paid off more than half of
350-620: A number of years. Collectively as a team the Spurs have honed in on the importance of the three pointer and as a result constantly rank among the league lead in three point attempts. The teams understanding of the importance of the "three" extends beyond the offensive side of the court as they are relentless at defending the three pointer in the defensive end of the court. In 2009 the Chicago Blackhawks turned to an outside company to produce analytical assessments for them. Subsequently,
400-454: A partnership with the AFL for 1999 and beyond to provide the league with statistical data, an agreement which continues to this day. Hopkins and Oehme sold the business to private ownership in 2007, with the former continuing to work under contract at the company for a number of years following the sale. The current majority owner of the company is Champion Data's director, Chris Hume. The AFL holds
450-572: A per-minute measurement to ensure that a player's incremental team contributions are measured irrespective of usage volume. In 2003, the sports analytics-focused website Football Outsiders pioneered football's first comprehensive advanced metric, DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average), which compares a player's success on each play to the league average based on a number of variables including down , distance, location on field, current score gap, quarter, and strength of opponent. Football Outsiders' work has since been widely cited by analytical members
500-479: Is also undergoing at Nagoya University to investigate the potential of using the defender-orientated ball recovery and being attacked as metrics, with it being used successfully with data from the Japanese J1 League to predict the strategies used by the teams. Many statisticians attribute the popularization of sports analytics to current Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane . Strapped with
550-491: Is an American writer and editor . He is best known for having served as the first public editor of The New York Times newspaper, inventing Rotisserie League Baseball , and for writing several books (such as Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition , which served as a major source for the 2011 Ken Burns / Lynn Novick miniseries Prohibition ) . In November 2011, Last Call won the Albert J. Beveridge prize, awarded by
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#1732794202088600-411: Is extremely popular among groups of all kinds, from avid sports fans to recreational gamblers, you would be hard pressed to find a professional sporting event with nothing riding on the results. Many gamblers are attracted to sports gambling because of the plethora of information and analytics that are at their disposal when making decisions. One gambler, Bob Stoll, has been ahead of the analytics curve for
650-567: Is one of those minds who has never suited up in a professional baseball game; instead, Epstein relies on his Yale University education and the numbers behind the game to make many of his decisions. Epstein, known for his role in ending two of baseball's most famous streaks (the Boston Red Sox curse of the Great Bambino in 2004, and as recently as the 2016 World Series , helping end the 108-year drought between World Series wins for
700-421: Is true", referring to the phenomenon of the press providing legitimacy to unsupported fringe viewpoints in an effort to appear even-handed . Okrent invented Rotisserie League Baseball , the best-known form of fantasy baseball , in 1979. The name comes from the fact that he proposed the idea to his friends while dining at La Rôtisserie Française restaurant on New York City's East 52nd Street. Okrent's team in
750-682: The American Historical Association to the year's best book of American history. His most recent book, published May 2019, is The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America . Born to a Jewish family in Detroit, Michigan , Okrent graduated from Cass Technical High School in Detroit in 1965 and from
800-517: The Australian Football League (AFL) and provide a "comprehensive and qualitative dimension" with "underlying analysis and commentaries". Through Champion Data, Hopkins launched the Rev Rankings in the Herald Sun in 1996, an early precursor of AFL Fantasy player ratings. By 1998, Champion Data's statistics were a feature of discussion on The Footy Show . The company then entered in
850-522: The ESPN 30 for 30 documentary series, in 2010 . Okrent is also credited with inventing the baseball stat, WHIP . At the time he referred to it as IPRAT, signifying "Innings Pitched Ratio". In May 1981, Okrent wrote and Sports Illustrated published "He Does It by the Numbers". This profile of the then-unknown Bill James launched James's career as baseball's foremost analyst. In 1994, Okrent
900-704: The Pulitzer Prize for History . In October 2003, Okrent was named public editor for The New York Times following the Jayson Blair scandal. He held this position until May 2005. Okrent and Peter Gethers , having acquired the theatrical rights to the site and name of the web series Old Jews Telling Jokes , co-wrote and co-produced a revue of that name. It opened at the Westside Theatre in Manhattan on May 20, 2012. From 2003-2008, he
950-462: The University of Michigan , where he worked on the university's student newspaper The Michigan Daily . Most of his career has been spent as an editor, at such places as Alfred A. Knopf ; Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich ; Esquire Magazine ; New England Monthly ; Life Magazine ; and Time, Inc. His book Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center (Viking, 2003) was a finalist for
1000-655: The strike zone hitters struggle with, so the pitcher can try to throw it to those spots of the strike zone to give themselves an advantage. In the early ages of basketball , the majority of shots were taken close to the basket. Now they NBA and other leagues have implemented a three-point line , allowing players to shoot from a further distance for 3 points instead of 2 points. For that reason, players have become multi-dimensional and more difficult to defend. The use of AI and analytics can show defenders how to guard certain players based on how well they shoot from three-point range. If they don't shoot well from three-point range, then
1050-616: The Astros have begun to use analytics to make decisions on how they will play on the field, "applying the defensive shift more than any other team in the MLB last season." Using this approach, the Houston Astros captured their first World Series victory in franchise history in 2017 . One of the early adopters of SportVU , the San Antonio Spurs have been using analytics to gain a competitive advantage on opponents for
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#17327942020881100-540: The Blackhawks have achieved unparalleled success in the NHL, winning three Stanley Cups in six seasons. With this success has come a number of difficult decisions for Blackhawks management as they are often only able to hang onto a core group of players following each cup run, while other key players receive offers that the Blackhawks simply cannot match under the NHL's salary cap. However, by using this analytics based system,
1150-411: The Blackhawks who provide yet another example of the longevity that can be associated with analytic base decision making. Sports analytics have had significant impact on the field of play but sports analytics have also contributed to the growing industry of sports gambling, which accounts for approximately 13% of the global gambling industry. Valued somewhere between $ 700–$ 1,000 billion, sports gambling
1200-508: The Chicago Cubs), is a member of a growing community in major league baseball who do not rely on years of major league playing experience. This community has been able to grow thanks to the in-depth collection of statistics that has existed in baseball for decades. With analytics being relatively common in MLB, there is a breadth of statistics that have become vital in the analysis of the game, which include: Houston Rockets ' Daryl Morey
1250-928: The General Manager of the Rockets decided to emphasize three point shots and used analytics to support his argument. As a result, the Rockets began shooting many more three-point shots and even traded their budding big man, Clint Capela. The success of analytic based strategies and decision making in baseball was noted by executives in other professional sports leagues. Today, almost every professional organization has least one analytical expert on staff, if not an entire department dedicated to analytics. The Astros rely heavily on analytics when making decisions. The team has employees with titles such as, director of decision sciences, medical risk manager and mathematic modeler. Unlike other professional teams who typically use analytics solely for player transactions and signings,
1300-532: The Mets, Johnson tasked a team employee with writing a dBASE II application to run sophisticated statistical models in order to better understand the capabilities and tendencies of the team's opponents. By the close of the twentieth century, sports analytics had gained significant acceptance by the management of many Major League Baseball clubs, notably the Oakland A's , Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians . At
1350-735: The Rotisserie League was called the "Okrent Fenokees", a pun on the Okefenokee Swamp . He was one of the first two people inducted into the Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame. Okrent was still playing Rotisserie as of 2009 under the team name Dan Druffs. Despite having been credited with inventing fantasy baseball he has never been able to win a Rotisserie League. His exploits of inventing Rotisserie League Baseball were chronicled in Silly Little Game , part of
1400-500: The article He Does It By The Numbers by Daniel Okrent (1981). In 1984, New York Mets manager Davey Johnson became the first known member of a known sports organization to advocate for the use of sports analytics. During his time with the Baltimore Orioles , Johnson had tried to convince the organization to use his FORTRAN baseball computer simulation to determine the team's optimal starting lineup. As manager of
1450-660: The ball travels and exactly where each shot is played from and where it finishes. These data have been used for a number of years by players and their coaches during practice sessions as well as during tournament preparation, highlighting the areas in which that player needs to improve before teeing it up in tournament play. Soccer uses tracking data, such as the positional data of the players and ball, for teams to obtain information about players’ conditioning. This data has also been used for evaluating attacking performance to estimate goals scored using Artificial Intelligence . Other approaches have included dribbling and passing. Research
1500-506: The collection, synthesis, and dissemination of advanced metrics to pro and college basketball organizations, sports media members, and fans. North Carolina , under coach Frank McGuire , was the first known basketball organization to utilize advanced possession metrics to gain a competitive advantage. Since then, sports analytics enthusiasts in basketball have created weighted statistics that measure each player and each team's on-court efficiency. Most basketball-specific advanced metrics feature
1550-490: The company." In the early ages of baseball , hitters had no insight on pitchers' pitch sequence tendencies and spin rate . In today's game, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics now shows hitters spin rate and pitch sequence information before the game. For the other side of this, it can also benefit the pitcher. As in today's game, AI and analytics can help the pitcher by showing which pitches are weaknesses of certain hitters. It can also show which parts of
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1600-454: The defender can back off and allow the shot. AI and analytics has also had a big impact on coaching. Late game scenarios, timeout usage, and defensive strategy, and player impact are examples of this. Certain teams in the NBA have coaches whose primary focus is on data and analytics to assist the head coach on making in-game adjustments. Daniel Okrent Daniel Okrent (born April 2, 1948)
1650-827: The driving forces for the use of sports analytics in the NFL has been the growth of fantasy football . Fantasy sports writer C. D. Carter and peers at XN Sports, NumberFire , and the long-form fantasy football analysis site, Rotoviz.com, have established an informal subculture of fantasy football sports writers who refer to themselves as "degens". The degen movement is responsible for the creation of numerous American football efficiency metrics that better explain past football performances and attempt to predict future player production. Height-adjusted Speed Score, College Dominator Rating, Target Premium, Catch Radius, Net Expected Points (NEP), and Production Premium were recently created and disseminated by degen writers and mathematicians. Building on
1700-531: The future performance of an individual player, the Speed Score , which he referenced in a piece written for Pro Football Prospectus . After analyzing data pertaining to running back success, Barnwell discovered that the most successful running backs at the NFL level were both fast and heavy, therefore, Speed Score weights 40-yard dash times by assigning a premium to bigger, often stronger, running backs. One of
1750-536: The impact of sponsorship on each team as well as its fans. Another significant impact sports analytics has had on professional sports is in relation to sports betting . In-depth sports analytics has taken sports gambling to new levels; whether it be fantasy sports leagues or nightly wagers, bettors now have more information at their disposal to help aid decision making than ever before. A number of companies and webpages have been developed to help provide fans with up-to-date information for their betting needs. Baseball
1800-456: The last number of years, data collection has become more in-depth and can be conducted with relative ease. Advancements in data collection have allowed for sports analytics to grow as well, leading to the development of advanced statistics and machine learning, as well as sport specific technologies that allow for things like game simulations to be conducted by teams prior to play, improve fan acquisition and marketing strategies, and even understand
1850-712: The late 1990s, as editor of new media at Time Inc. , Okrent wrote about the future of magazine publishing. He believed that the advancement of digital technologies would make it easier for people to read newspapers, magazines and books online. In late 1999, Okrent made a prediction about the future of print media in the Hearst New Media Lecture at the Graduate School of Journalism of Columbia University . He told his audience: I believe they, and all forms of print, are dead. Finished. Over. Perhaps not in my professional lifetime, but certainly in that of
1900-733: The on-field performance of teams and players, including questions such as "which player on the Red Sox contributed most to the team's offense?" or "who is the best wing player in the NBA ?", etc. Off-field analytics deals with the business side of sports. Off-field analytics focuses on helping a sport organization or body surface patterns and insights through data that would help increase ticket and merchandise sales, improve fan engagement, etc. Off-field analytics essentially uses data to help rights-holders make decisions that would lead to higher growth and increased profitability. As technology has advanced over
1950-723: The remaining 49-percent shareholder stake. As well as providing statistical analysis for the AFL Women's , the Talent League and various football state leagues , Champion Data also captures data for Netball Australia and Netball New Zealand 's elite competitions. The company has also inked contracts with the National Rugby League , Premier Lacrosse League , and XFL . Sports analytics There are two key aspects of sports analytics—on-field and off-field analytics. On-field analytics deals with improving
2000-589: The same time, baseball fans and sports media had begun to adopt sports analytics as a way to understand and report the game. In 1996, Baseball Prospectus sought to build upon Bill James' work when it launched the Baseball Prospectus website in order to present sabermetric research and related findings as well as publish advanced metrics such as EqA , the Davenport Translations (DT's) , and VORP . Baseball Prospectus has grown into
2050-426: The sports media establishment. A few years later, Pro Football Focus launched a comprehensive statistical database , which soon featured a sophisticated player grading system. Advanced Football Analytics (originally Advanced NFL Stats) has its EPA (expected points added) and WPA (win probability added) for NFL players. Grantland lead football writer Bill Barnwell created the first metrics focused on predicting
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2100-407: The team has continuously been able to fill these gaps by finding players who are undervalued by other teams but will fit well with the Blackhawks' style of play. Many times, a team put together like this will seem underwhelming but perform higher than expectations. This strategy could be adopted by teams with limited financial freedom to put together a competitive team. This process has been refined by
2150-599: The time. Results from academic research show evidence that Twitter contains enough information to be useful for predicting outcomes in football games. With the popularity of sports gambling came the development of a number of sports betting services. "Sports betting services are provided by companies such as William Hill, Ladbrokes, bet365, bwin, Paddy Power, betfair, Unibet and many more through their websites and in many cases betting shops. In 2012, William Hill generated around 2 billion U.S. dollars in revenue with about 30 billion U.S. dollars in total being staked / wagered with
2200-567: The time. Using a similar approach to that of Billy Beane, Epstein was able to form a Boston Red Sox team that in 2004, won the organization's first World Series in 86 years, breaking the alleged Curse of the Bambino . Many experts attribute some of Epstein's success to Boston Red Sox owner, John W. Henry , who achieved significant success in the investments industry by using data-based decision making. As owner, Henry provided Epstein with significant leeway when it came to data-based decision making and
2250-543: The use of sabermetrics, as he knew the impact that such tools can have in achieving success in both sports and business. Since his success in Boston, Epstein had moved on to Chicago, where in 2016 he led the Chicago Cubs to their first World Series title in 108 years. More recently, teams like the Houston Rockets of the NBA have put a heavy focus on analytics to dictate front office and on-court decisions. Daryl Morey,
2300-417: The work of these writers, sites such as PlayerProfiler.com distill a wide variety of established advanced metrics into a single player snapshot designed to be palatable to the casual sports fan. The NHL has kept statistics since its inception, yet it is a relatively new adopter of analytics -based decision making. The Toronto Maple Leafs were the first team in the NHL to hire a member of management with
2350-814: Was chairman of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. He has been awarded honorary degrees by the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Since 2017, Okrent has been listed on the Advisory Board of the Secular Coalition for America . Okrent formulated what has become known as "Okrent's law" in an interview comment he made about his new job. It states: "The pursuit of balance can create imbalance because sometimes something
2400-544: Was filmed for his in-depth knowledge of baseball history for the Ken Burns documentary Baseball . During the nine-part series, a red-sweater-wearing Okrent delivered a detailed analysis of the cultural aspects of the national pastime, including a comparison of the dramatic Game 6 of the 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds to the conflict and character development in Russian novels . In
2450-432: Was one of the first sports to embrace sports analytics with Earnshaw Cook publishing Percentage Baseball in 1964. This was the first publication citing sports analytics to garner national media attention. In 1981, Bill James helped bring SABR (Society for American Baseball Research), one of the leading sports analytical organizations for baseball, into national prominence when Sports Illustrated featured James in
2500-524: Was the first NBA general manager to implement advanced metrics as a key aspect of player evaluation. In the years that followed Morey's hiring, the NBA moved quickly to adopt advanced metrics-based player evaluation practices. In 2012, John Hollinger left ESPN to become VP of Basketball Operations for the Memphis Grizzlies . Beyond professional basketball front offices, major sports media websites such as Basketball Reference are dedicated to
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