Sports Analytics: A Guide for Coaches, Managers, and Other Decision Makers

Data and analytics have the potential to provide sports organizations with a competitive advantage both on and off the field. Yet even as the use of analytics in sports has become commonplace, teams regularly find themselves making big investments without significant payoff.

This book is a practical, nontechnical guide to incorporating sports data into decision making, giving leaders the knowledge they need to maximize their organization’s investment in analytics. Benjamin C. Alamar―a leading expert who has built high-performing analytics groups―surveys the current state of the use of data in sports, including both specifics around the tools and how to deploy them most effectively. Sports Analytics offers a clear, easily digestible overview of data management, statistical models, and information systems and a detailed understanding of their vast possibilities. It walks readers through the essentials of understanding the value of different types of data and strategies for building and managing an analytics team. Throughout, Alamar illustrates the value of analytics with real-world examples and case studies from both the sports and business sides.

Sports Analytics has guided a range of sports professionals to success since its original publication in 2013. This second edition adds examples and strategies that focus on using data on the business side of a sports organization, provides concrete strategies for incorporating different types of data into decision making, and updates all discussions for the rapid technological developments of the last decade.

Benjamin C. Alamar has been a leader in sports analytics for more than fifteen years, working with organizations including ESPN, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and StubHub. He has taught at universities including Rice, Columbia, and MIT. The founder of the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, Alamar has written for outlets such as ESPN, Analytics magazine, and the Wall Street Journal.