2026 Schedule

Welcome Remarks from Co-Chairs and Co-Leads

Patient Zero: What Chess Teaches Us About a Superhuman AI World

Power Players: ESPN and DraftKings Reshape Sports Betting for the Fan

The Business of Sports

What Six Years of AI Taught Us (That LinkedIn Didn't) Presented by SeatGeek

Career Conversations Presented by Ticketmaster

Startup Competition & Tradeshow Booths and Research Paper Posters Exhibition

Research Papers Welcome Presented by Susquehanna

Pop-a-Shot Interactive Event - Open Play

SeatGeek Ticketing Game

Major League Table Tennis - Challenge a Pro

Curling Interactive Event - Open Play

Characterizing and Controlling the Perceived Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues

Designing Demand: How the Bulls Harness Data and Insights for a Modern Ticketing Playbook Presented by Eventellect

Interpretable Prediction and Large-Scale Analysis of Judging in Professional Boxing

Valuing La Pausa: Quantifying Optimal Pass Timing Beyond Speed

The Next Play: AI's Impact on Emerging Leagues

Where the Game Grows: Venues, Markets and Global Strategy

The Future of Peak Performance: Clara Wu Tsai and John Donahoe

More Effective Use of The Power Play in Mixed Doubles Curling

Tackling Causality: Estimating Frame-Level Defensive Impact with Multi-Agent Transformers

Science Meets Storytelling: Building a Glass-to-Glass AI Analytics Platform for Live Sports Presented by Amazon Prime Video

A Conversation with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver led by Sue Bird

The Reinvention of Golf: Evolution or Disruption?

The Future of Youth Sports: From Playgrounds to Pro Pathways

Career Conversations Presented by Ticketmaster

Deep Reinforcement Learning for NBA Player Valuation: A Temporal Difference Approach with Shapley Attribution

Can a Stadium Full of Monkeys Playing Strat-o-Matic Outmanage Earl Weaver? An Empirical Bayesian Estimator of Manager Value

From Tool Sprawl to Competitive Advantage: Rebuilding Coherent Analytics Presented by Lumenalta

Wide Open Gazes: Quantifying Visual Exploratory Behavior in Soccer with Pose Enhanced Positional Data

Unconventional Thinkers

The Next Generation of Content: Unlocking Immersive and Interactive Sports Media

Winning Denver: What Denver's Sports Fans Tell Us About Growth Opportunities Presented by KAGR

Case Competition Final Presentations Presented by Kraft Analytics Group (KAGR) in partnership with Tepper Sports and Entertainment

Chess Interactive Event - Simul

Beyond the Eye Test: How AI is Capturing What Coaches Know

Next Gen Fan Engagement: The Intelligent Experience Presented by Sportradar

The Impact Equation: Data Beyond Profit to Purpose

The World Cup at Scale: How FIFA is Rewriting the Rules of Global Soccer

Beyond Football: How NCAA and Colleges are Growing Revenue in Women's and Olympic Sports Presented by KAGR

Hackathon Final Presentations Presented by TeamWass

Chess Interactive Event - Guess the Elo

The Missing Variable: Menstrual Cycles, Injury Risk, ​and the Competitive Edge in Data-Driven Sport​

WAR and Peace: Gaining an Edge in Modern Baseball

Elevating the Platform: Taking Sports Sponsorships to the Next Level

Innovation in Sports Leagues: A Conversation with Jessica Berman and Valerie Camillo

How Schedules and Viewer Behavior Drive the Value of Media Rights Presented by Fastbreak AI

Identifying Multiple Dimensions of Luck versus Skill: Analyzing Tennis and Gender

Chess Interactive Event - Hand & Brain

Investing in Sports: The Alternative Asset Class

Playing the Long Game: How Start-Ups & Entrepreneurs Win in Sports

Setting the Edge: How Analytics are Rewriting Football Strategy

Building Unfair Advantages: Analytics at Multi-Sport Organizations

Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Biggest Question in College Sports Presented by TeamWass

Decomposing the Result: Signal vs. Noise

Building a Legacy: A 1-on-1 with MLS Commissioner Don Garber

Across Court and Sand: Applied Analytics in Volleyball

Rejected by the Record Books: How Many Shots Did Wilt Chamberlain Actually Block?

Making the Right Call: How AI Is Reshaping Officiating Across Pro Sports

'Pablo Torre Finds Out' at SSAC (Live Podcast)

The Missing Half of Performance: Why Modern Soccer Gets Evaluation Wrong Presented by Gradient Sports

Startup Competition (<$500k of Funding)

Ice Time: Analytics Across Hockey's Levels

Prediction Markets at the Crossroads: Sports, Regulation, and What Comes Next

Shopping Trends Shaping the Sports Ticket Marketplace Presented by Ticketmaster

State Change Champion: Chessboxing Breathwork for Focus, Resilience, and Performance

Resume Reviews Presented by Ticketmaster

Startup Competition & Tradeshow Booths and Research Paper Posters Exhibition

Major League Table Tennis - Challenge a Pro

Heat Safety in Professional Sport: Aligning Data, Physiology, and Policy

The Analytics Paradox Presented by ESPN

Reimagining the NCAA: Data as the New Competitive Advantage

San Jose Sharks: Pricing the Present in a Future that's Teal Presented by KAGR

From Fan Data to Revenue: Turning First-Party Insight into Commercial Impact Presented by TeamWass

Chess Interactive Event - Blindfolded Chess

From Noise to Knowledge: Building High-Quality, Data-Driven Research for Female Athlete Health & Performance

The Rise of the Modern Ticket Economy and What Comes Next

Men in Blazers Presents: How Smart Data Turned a Small Club Into A Premier League Threat (Live Podcast)

Career Playbooks: The Reality of Working in Sports Presented by Ticketmaster

Chess Interactive Event - Open Chess Boxing

Startup Competiton (>$500k of Funding)

The History of Progress in Football Analytics Presented by Sigma Computing

Building the Academic Playbook for Sports Analytics Education

When the Model Meets Human: The Future of Basketball Decision-Making

Leveraging Data for Athlete Health and Performance

Curling Interactive Event - Tournament Play

Surgery and Sports: How Data Inform Decision Making When the Stakes are High

Women's Luncheon Presented by ESPN and Eventellect

The Future of Hockey: Engineering the Next Era of Growth

Redefining Limits: How Elite Athletes Achieve and Sustain Peak Performance featuring David Epstein

The Here, Now, and Future of Pitch Design

High Standards vs. High Stakes in Sport: How OCD Rituals Hijack Performance - and How Treatment Restores It

Chess Interactive Event - Chess Boxing Demonstration

The Dark Side of 'Moneyball for Everything' with Nate Silver and Derek Thompson

Heated Revelry: Celebrating LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Sports

The Missing Layer of Sports Analytics: Identity Intelligence as a Durable Revenue Advantage Presented by People Data Labs

Bayesian Spatial Modeling for Evaluating Hockey Goaltending Performance

Shifting from the Information Economy into the Entrepreneurial Economy

Hot Takes: Celebrating 20 Years of SSAC and Debating What’s Next

Alpha Awards