Real World Application for Sports Analytics
“Tennis is mostly mental. You win or lose a match before you even go out there” – Venus Williams
Data and its use cases have been determining that sports today is more than just a physical game. Today a team’s win rides greatly on stadium capacity management, television contracts, sports merchandise, sponsorships, endorsements, retention and a sense of pride. So effectively there is a lot at stake than mere performance.
Today major teams have their own analytics partner, who can conjure up the numbers and strategies that can predict their success or doom. Some of the niche uses of analytics in the sports field has already been discussed in the previous series, and here we look at how sports analytics methods are used to impact business.
1. Simulations – Financial markets use simulations to assess portfolio performance. Accurate demand forecasts are also done using these in the retail sector.
2. Player and Ball path optimization – Logistic companies look for path optimization factoring in real time traffic and weather conditions. Path optimization is also linked to improving productivity.
3. Computer Vision and NLP – Snack foods use AI based systems to ensure their snack has the uniform shape, density and airiness. Hedge funds use these systems to measure footfalls in stores to forecast sales and earnings.
4. Telemetry – Oil and gas industry uses telemetry to predict machinery lifespan, predictive maintenance, data being churned as a revenue generator. Data can be provided for city traffic planning, vehicular movements and driver behaviour.
5. Player health, Training and optimization – Individual players spend substantial amount of money on their fitness, nutrition, training and recovery. Wearables churn out a significant amount of data that can be utilised to leverage one’s game. And now we all use it to get the best results out of our workout.
Today analytics does everything from pregame, in game predictive data projections and post-game study and analysis. It saves coaches multiple hours spent analysing game films and devising strategies. Predictions and projections increase the chances of winning in many games. Some analytic applications use customized dashboards and collect training and fitness data. While some others have play by play commentary and real time interactions.
Today recruitment of college athletes is an entirely different enterprise, thanks to the embedded analytics that universities are adopting. Having a professional athlete in a university team is viewed as a mark of pride. Nevertheless, overindulgence in technology should not lead coaches to lose sight of the fact that statistics alone is not a fool proof mechanism for spotting hidden talent. Some athletes may not be able reach their highest athletic potential marred by lack of resources or personal problems.
What ails this industry is the fact that there is a growing interest in gambling and betting in sports. Valued in billions, it exists parallelly as a dark side to this ever growing industry. This is a grey area where we find many sports aficionados and gamblers alike trying to beat the odds in their favour. Another reason why many are attracted to the sporting arena, is the amount of information and analytics which is at their disposal. Betting and gambling have been the cause for many sporting idols across the globe to fall from grace.
“Ambiguity is today, not a lack of data, but a deluge of data” – Paul Gibbons
Authors – Benila Jacob, Anthony Preetham