Identifying the “Players” in Sports Analytics Research

• Identifying the “Players” in Sports Analytics Research
• Introduction
• Targeted Industry
• Business Analytics Benefits and Examples
• Limitations of Solution(s) and Recommendations
• Conclusion
• References

Introduction

This case study mentioned in the evaluation of the “players” in the sports analysis industry.

Targeted Industry

Pertaining to sports analytics as a whole, one can make a general assertion of the lack of materials found on the broad topic. The key players would include the journalists, institutions (both public and private), and peer-reviewed academic literature. As a result, the industry is a sub-sector of the business industry; growing exponentially since the 1990s. Without these key players, research would be limited. Limited research would equate to a lack of advancement in all aspects of the sports industry- statistics, media, medical, gambling, and business.

Business Analytics Benefits and Examples

The growth of sports analytics, since its inception in the middle of the 20th century, would have many benefits to the industry in itself.

To point out the most obvious factor, one can assert that without the presence of sports analytics, the culture of sports would not be nearly as relevant as it is today. According to Coleman’s case study, extensive research points to the institutions that have sports analytics research present in their publications. Order from the most to the least amount (while focusing on gathering as many resources deemed possible), the sports analytics articles have a direct correlation to the citations gathered from various resources. For example, Table 3 presents the top-40 rankings of national renowned sports analytics research. With Lancaster University at the top of the first top-40 rankings of sports analytics articles, the institution also ranks number one in the citations used in the research. Granted- the case study evaluated only 1146 total articles produced from 140 different journals (from over 100 different institutions); however, the minuscule data was represented from all over the country. How would this sample size depict a nationwide benefit in sports analytics?

Simply put, the sample size is meant to capture the realism of the data. The more citations used (citations include factual evidence-based key points from prior research and statistics/graphs that backup the given citations), the more sports analytics articles that were brought into play (to be noted- certain articles did not qualify for the standard research performed in this case-study).

Limitations of Solution(s) and Recommendations

The information presented in the case-study was beneficial since its growth in the 1990s; but, a couple of problems stand in the way of continuous break-out growth.

The first limitation would be generalized as the sports analytics field being fragmented. For example, in the case study, Coleman references that “The field is likely still too incoherent to support academic programs devoted to it”. This would lead to sports-analytic methods to be internal; resulting in the nature of the articles to not be published (a direct link between the sport and the analytics would be the best route for a publication). Moreover, this limitation would “create a challenge for academics interested in partnering with teams for projects”.

The second limitation would relate to the target focus of sports analytics- as there is no apparent goal in mind when dealing with the sports analytics itself. For instance, the challenge prevents authors to identify their audience, resulting in a generalized application of the analytics. In addition, the authors have no previous degree to which journals accurately publish sports analytics research. The journals that have the most-cited research revolve around their ability to actually capture the main focal point of the audience. There are “substantial amounts” of ranks that contribute to one of the researcher’s journals; however, no rankings exist for sports analytics as a whole.

Conclusion

The goal is filling the voids. Since the 1990s, researchers started to capture the gist of the specific nature of sports analytics. As the authors and institutions are coming closer, more research and publications will be needed to break away from the generalization.

References

Coleman, B. J. (2015). Identifying the "Players" in Sports Analytics Research. Interfaces, 42(2), 2–22. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261975917_Identifying_the_Players_in_Sports_Analytics_Research/link/555f451d08ae8c0cab309129

Evans. (n.d.). Business Analytics (2nd ed.). Pearson.