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Mar
2019

The 13th Annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

Mar 1
-
Mar 2, 2019
Hynes Convention Center
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2025 SLOAN SPORTS ANALYTICS CONFERENCE

The 13th annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference took place March 1-2 at the Hynes Convention Center!  We were proud to continue the great tradition of bringing together the leading figures in sports analytics, business, and technology.

At our roots, we are about education and our goal is to provide more opportunities for sharing industry successes, to create forums to discuss the most challenging topics of the day, and to continue identifying new ideas.  As a conference we are firmly committed to innovation. Each year, we have added new elements to push the larger analytics conversation forward.  Recent years have seen advances from the Research Paper competition started in 2010 to the popular and successful Hack-A-Thon, the introduction of an esports room, doubling the number of Competitive Advantage talks, expansion of the Startup Tradeshow competition, and introduction of industry-specific workshops.  Despite our past successes, we firmly believe that the best is yet to come.

Speakers

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Omar Ajmeri

Research Analyst, Twitter

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Ben Alamar

Sports Analytics Author & Consultant

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Portia Archer

VP of DTC Services, NBC Sports

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Kevin Arnovitz

NBA Writer, ESPN.com

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Andrew Ashenden

CCO, Perform

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Charlie Baker

NCAA President, Governor of Massachusetts (2015-2023)

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Saquon Barkley

Running Back, New York Giants

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Mark Bashuk

Director of Business Analytics, Oakland Athletics

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Howard Beck

Senior Writer, Bleacher Report

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Jason Benetti

College Play-by-Play Announcer, ESPN

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Roger Bennett

Host - Men in Blazers, Men in Blazers

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Kristin Bernert

President of Business Operations, Columbus Crew

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Brian Bilello

President, New England Revolution

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Sue Bird

WNBA Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist, Co-Founder of A Touch More and Togethxr

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Scott Blumstein

Poker Player

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Christopher Boucher

VP Sports Development, Analytics, & Hockey Operations, Sportlogiq

See Full List of Speakers

Events

From the Martial Arts to the Art of Negotiation – Sport, Science, Art, or Philosophy?

When it comes to excellence and superior performance in the martial arts, sports, business or any other endeavor, how does one exceed the limits of science and truly become an “artist”?

Panels
DIY Shot Charts

In this workshop, we will explore techniques in data scraping and data visualization.

Workshops
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Data Scraping with Python 3

This session will survey many data scraping techniques using Python 3.

Workshops
How to Advertise Effectively on Facebook & Instagram

This session covering the ins and outs of Facebook and Instagram advertising, including a hands-on workshopping period where attendees will learn how create, target, and track/analyze ads.

Workshops
Using Tableau to Rapidly Deploy Interactive Visualizations

Tableau is one of the most prevalent and useful BI tools available.

Workshops
R for predictive modeling

This introductory session will show you how R can be used to build predictive models.

Workshops
SQL for Data Analysis: Measuring Customer Loyalty and Value

SQL is a hugely powerful language for working with data, and sits atop the long list of tools that data analysts and scientists must know to be effective.

Workshops
Data Is The New Black: Building Data-Driven Organizations

Traditional management principles need to be revised—data is shaping the way in which best-in-class organizations build teams, drive strategy, maximize revenue, and create culture.

Panels
Soccer Analytics: Shaping the Future of the Game (Presented by Optapro)

As the beautiful game continues to adapt to the rise of analytics, player positions are evolving in accordance with these changes.

Panels
Basketball Analytics: Hunting for Unicorns

The game of basketball changes quickly – so in an era of three-point shooting, floor spacing, and versatility, it’s natural to wonder what the next iteration of the game will look like.

Panels
Scoring Sponsorships: Metrics to Maximize Brand Value (Presented by Hookit)

With most aspects of our daily lives featuring advertising or sponsorships of some kind, it is increasingly difficult for brands to quantify and attribute the value that they get out of specific sponsorships.

Panels
The Performance/Precaution Tradeoff: Player Health

The days of rubbing dirt on an injury and returning to the game are over.

Panels
Helping Dream Chasers: Social Justice With Meek Mill and Michael Rubin

Having been directly impacted by unfairly harsh laws and unexpectedly becoming a voice for criminal justice reform, Philadelphia-raised rapper Meek Mill shares his unique perspective and partnership with close friend and co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers Michael Rubin to bring greater awareness to this issue impacting millions without a voice in the US.

Panels
Ticketing Analytics: The Power of Open Distribution

Ticketing is the next frontier of major growth in the sports business.

Panels
An American Analyst in London

Soccer, the sport with the largest global fan base, has largely resisted the analytics wave.

Panels
Winning Outside The Game in The Business of Sports

The sports industry is changing every day: questions around media rights are more pertinent than ever, consumer interests and desired engagement are evolving quickly, the ticketing industry is undergoing a massive shift, and start-up leagues and technologies are challenging leagues who had a near monopoly on fans attention.

Panels
What Does The Fox Say? Analytics in Poker

Given the massive set of possible decision points – 10^14 in Limit Hold ‘em and 10^160 in No-limit Hold ‘em – poker lends itself naturally to the implementation of analytics

Panels
Creating a Sports Legacy

Legacies are built when there is a vision for establishing something novel and long-lasting.

Panels
Changing the Game: How Advanced Data is Enhancing Broadcasts (Presented by ESPN)

Recent years have seen an uptick in the use of advanced data and analytics to enhance game broadcasts and drive second-screen platforms, creating differentiating viewing experiences for sports fans.

Panels
The Cutting Edge: Hockey Analytics (Presented by SportLogiq)

The Hockey ecosystem is in the midst of widespread change.

Panels
Who Says No? A 1-On-1 With Adam Silver and Bill Simmons

Nearing the end of the regular season, Bill Simmons sits one-on-one with commissioner Adam Silver to discuss various basketball – and, in typical Bill fashion, a couple non-basketball – related topics.

Panels
Breaking Away From The Pack: Sports Entrepreneurship

The sports industry has experienced tremendous growth over the last ten years—but the growth hasn’t come from a single source.

Panels
Wild West of Analytics: Other Industry Perspectives on Use & Misuse of Data

Data use and misuse has emerged as an area of focus as organizations collect and use data in new and innovative ways, ahead of regulatory and ethical frameworks.

Panels
Baseball 2.0: Updating America's Pastime

Baseball has been a constant through the years with limited innovation while the world of sports shifts around it.

Panels
No Lead is Safe: Innovation in Sports

Sports has been a bastion for innovation and change.

Panels
The People Advantage: Culture Analytics

The availability of data today is rapidly expanding, and while this promises to unlock valuable insights for all businesses, many organizations find themselves at a crossroads.

Panels
Career Kickoff

The Career Panel provides a lively discussion on the skills vital in today’s sports industry and what analytical and business leaders are looking for in talent.

Panels
Rebooting the Lakers/Celtics Rivalry

The Celtics-Lakers rivalry is one of the most storied in all of sports.

Panels
Managing The Big League Levers

The ecosystem of a sports league is unique, and league offices are given the difficult task of bringing together a set of disparate teams and pointing them towards the best interests of the collective whole.

Panels
Skin in the game: Sports Gambling’s Emergence in the US

The moment millions of fans have been waiting for is finally here: sports betting is legal in a few of the 50 U.S.

Panels
Unlocking Potential: The Next Generation of Tracking Data (Presented by STATS)

Player tracking technologies in the past decade have provided information that was once unattainable—the distance and speed a player runs in a game, effectiveness against certain defenders, the game situations which are most likely to produce a fast break, and so much more.

Panels
Do Athletes Need The Media?

Until recently, athletes were completely reliant on journalists to communicate with fans, and consequently their stories were told through someone else’s lens.

Panels
Achievement Unlocked: ESports Analytics

A multitude of esports leagues and tournaments are thriving globally across various blockbuster games.

Panels
Metrics Are The Mike: Football Analytics

Football is rapidly shedding its reputation for being slow in the uptake and application of advanced analytics, as today’s teams are more readily harnessing the power of data to inform their decision making.

Panels
Direct-To-Consumer: Disrupting & Engaging Today's Sports Fans (Presented By Rakuten)

The ability to create and view content on-the-go has changed how fans engage with their favorite teams on game days and beyond.

Making the Modern Athlete: A Conversation with David Epstein and Malcolm Gladwell

Authors Malcolm Gladwell and David Epstein meet again, five years since their initial 10,000 Hours vs. The Sports Gene talk, to resurface the important and long-standing question of whether nature or nurture determines one’s athletic success.

Panels
It’s Complicated: Athlete Relationships with Social Media

Every league has, at least to some degree, embraced social media outlets like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook as critical channels to connect fans more closely to the sports they watch.

Panels
Sports Mythbusting

In the age of camera phones and social media, athletes and league officials can hardly do anything without it being captured and reported on.

Panels
Competing with the Couch: Improving the Venue Experience

With increasing options for when, where, and how fans are able to watch their favorite teams play, legacy venues are trying to accommodate newer technologies and comforts to encourage fans to come to live games and engage with their team.

Panels
Michael Lewis – Going Deep with Mike Leach – The Most Innovative Mind in Football

Coach; Author; Innovator; Eccentric; Brilliant; Unconventional. All these and more have been used to describe Mike Leach, who will sit down with bestselling author Michael Lewis for a one-on-one conversation on being arguably the most innovative coach in football history and how he has changed the way the game is played.

Panels

Research Papers

A Data Driven Goalkeeper Evaluation Framework

Derrick Yam

Download the Full Paper Here
Analytics for the Front Office: Valuing Protections on NBA Draft Picks

Benjamin T. Foster
Michael D. Binns

Download the Full Paper Here
Choke or Shine? Quantifying Soccer Players' Abilities to Perform Under Mental Pressure

Lotte Bransen
Pieter Robberechts
Jan Van Haaren
Jesse Davis

Download the Full Paper Here
Chuckers: Measuring Lineup Shot Distribution Optimality Using Spatial Allocative Efficiency Models

Nathan Sandholtz
Jacob Mortensen
Luke Bornn

Download the Full Paper Here
Data-driven lowlight and highlight reel creation based on explainable temporal game models

Evin Keane
Phillippe Desaulniers
Luke Bornn
Mehrsan Javan

Download the Full Paper Here
Decomposing the Immeasurable Sport: A deep learning expected possession value framework for soccer

Javier Fernandez
Luke Bornn
Dan Cervone

Download the Full Paper Here
DeepQB: Deep Learning with Player Tracking to Quantify Quarterback Decision-Making & Performance

Brian Burke

Download the Full Paper Here
From Markov models to Poisson point processes: Modeling movement in the NBA

Jacob Mortensen
Luke Bornn

Download the Full Paper Here
How Much Do Coaches Matter

Christopher Berry
Anthony Fowler

Download the Full Paper Here
Leveraging Batter-Pitcher Matchups for Optimal Game Strategy

Willie Harrison
John Salmon

Download the Full Paper Here
New Evidence in the Study of Shirking in Major League Baseball

Richars Paulsen

Download the Full Paper Here
Playing Fast Not Loose: Evaluating team-level pace of play in ice hockey using spatio-temporal possession data

David Yu
Christopher Boucher
Luke Bornn
Mehrsan Javan

Download the Full Paper Here
Predicting Major League Baseball Strikeout Rates from Differences in Velocity and Movement Among Player Pitch Types

Eric P. Martin

Download the Full Paper Here
The Economic Impact of NBA Superstars: Evidence from Missed Games using Ticket Microdata from a Secondary Marketplace

Scott Kaplan
Vaibhav Ramamoorthly
Cheernar Gupte
Amit Sagar
Deepak Premkumar
Joshua Wilbur
David Zilberman

Download the Full Paper Here
The Economic Impact of NBA Superstars: Evidence from Missed Games using Ticket Microdata from a Secondary Marketplace

Scott Kaplan
Vaibhav Ramamoorthy
Cheenar Gupte
Amit Sagar
Deepak Premkumar
Joshua Wilbur
David Zilberman

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Download the Full Paper Here
The Evolution of Curling Analytics

Kevin Palmer
Gerry Geurts

Download the Full Paper Here
The Horizon of Sports is Digital: Using Fantasy Sports, e-Sports and Electronic Gambling to Find Next Generation of Ticket Buyers

Matt Sabban
Peter Ibarra
Peter Lenz

Download the Full Paper Here
Training Schedule Confounds the Relationship between Acute:Chronic Workload Ratio and Injury

Luke Bornn
Patrick Ward
Darcy Norman

Download the Full Paper Here
Using Deep Learning to Understand Patterns of Player Movement in the NBA

Akhil Nistala
John Guttag

Download the Full Paper Here
Winning Isn’t Everything – A contextual analysis of hockey face-offs

Nick Czuzoj-Shulman
David Yu
Christopher Boucher
Luke Bornn
Mehrsan Javan

Download the Full Paper Here

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