6
Mar
2020

The 14th Annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

Mar 6
-
Mar 7, 2020
Boston Convention and Exhibition Center
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2020

SLOAN SPORTS ANALYTICS CONFERENCE

The 14th annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference will take place March 6-7 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center!  We are proud to continue the great tradition of bringing together the leading figures in sports analytics, business, and technology.

We look forward to seeing you in Boston in March 2020!  Check out the conference agenda to see what we have scheduled.

Speakers

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Dafna Aaronson

Performance & People Analytics Specialist

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J.A. Adande

Director of Sports Journalism Northwestern University

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TJ Adeshola

Head of U.S. Sports, Twitter

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Kevin Arnovitz

NBA Writer, ESPN.com

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Saquon Barkley

Running Back, New York Giants

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Shane Battier

Investor; Founder of The Battier Take Charge Foundation; 2x NBA Champion with Miami Heat

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Howard Beck

Senior Writer, Bleacher Report

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Jason Bernard

Baseball Research and Development Manager MLB

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Matthew Berry

Senior Fantasy Sports Analyst ESPN

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Fiona Birch

Founder Pro Athlete Online

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Sue Bird

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

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Luke Bornn

Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, Zelus Analytics

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Josh Brickman

VP Business Strategy Boston Bruins

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Mark Broadie

Carson Family Professor of Business, Columbia Business School

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Sashi Brown

Chief Planning & Operations Officer, Monumental Sports & Entertainment

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Jaylen Brown

Professional Basketball Player, Boston Celtics

See Full List of Speakers

Events

Reinventing a Business: The Future of Sports Business

On this panel, leaders of some of the world’s most prominent companies driving the sports ecosystem discuss their proactive approach to understand customer needs, the changing business dynamics and the challenges keeping their businesses as industry leaders.

Panels
Sports in 2040: Hindsight is 2020

In 2040, the NBA has a 5-point line, NFL stadiums seat 40,000 as fans watch via VR, Amazon will own MLS, and MLB games finish in less than an hour.

Panels
1:1 With Enes Kanter

Howard Beck sits down with Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter for a wide-ranging conversation on his unique basketball career and his stance on expressing his beliefs and freedom of speech.

Panels
The Boardroom: The Making Of A Superstar

Executive produced by Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman, The Boardroom brings fans inside the business of sports, featuring real-time conversations with athletes and executives about what’s really changing the game.

Panels
Pass The Secret Sauce: Learning Across Sports

Athletes, coaches, analysts, and executives have remained siloed in their respective sports for decades.

Panels
"3s & Frees": The Evolving Nature of Basketball

Basketball is undeniably an evolving sport. From the run and gun in the ‘60s to the physical slugfest in the ‘90s to the “threes and frees” of today, the game has transformed and reinvented itself over and over again.

Panels
The Path to Greatness

Sports are mythic, and a backdrop for life. What does it take to become the greatest of all time?

Panels
Dark Arts: What the Sports World Can Learn From Chess - Panel Discussion and Chess Simul With GM Robert Hess

What happens in Chess will eventually happen in all sports

Panels
The Sports Learning Curve: Why Teams are Slow to Learn and Adapt

Let’s face it, despite decades of data and statistical analysis to lean on, players, coaches and GMs alike continue to fall into predictable behavioral traps when it comes to decision making.

Panels
Moving The Chains: Advancing Football Analytics

Information from player tracking to advanced metrics is shaping how rosters are constructed, players prepare, and coaches call games. Viewers can expect to see Next Gen Stats on every broadcast.

Panels
Moneyball To Homerball With Bill James and Tom Tango

Arguably the two greatest baseball analytics minds of all time will meet on stage for the first time to discuss the Sabermetrics that Bill James created and Tom has revolutionized

Panels
Making the Right Play: Optimizing the NBA's Season Structure

For more than 50 years the NBA has operated with an 82-game regular season, but is this the optimal season structure?

Panels
No Industry is Safe: The Opioid Epidemic in Sports and Society

Addiction is now the leading cause of death in America for those under 50.

Panels
Soccer Analytics: The Beautiful Game Meets the Analytics Edge

The arms race is on – more teams from FC Barcelona to Liverpool are using analytical tools to influence and inform their technical decisions, transfer market game plan, and scouting strategies.

Panels
Basketball Analytics: Nothin' But Net... Rating

Analytics has revolutionized the modern game, but there are changes happening off the court that are unseen by the public.

Panels
A New Arena: Careers After Sports

A professional athlete’s lifepath after retiring can be as unpredictable as their career between the lines.

Panels
Player Empowerment: I've Got The Power

In recent years we’ve seen an undeniable increase in player influence with regards to what they make, where they play, and how they leverage their brand beyond the team.

Panels
Hockey Analytics: A Faceoff With Data

The use of analytics to support important decision-making in the NHL has increased significantly over the past few years, but the real revolution is still to come.

Panels
An Optimization Approach to Roster Creation and Game Scheduling

In this session, we will explore roster construction through mixed-integer optimization.

Workshops
Introduction to NFL Player Tracking Data in R

In this workshop, we will explore NFL player tracking data (Next Gen Stats) and provide examples on how to calculate various metrics and create visualizations using R.

Workshops
The Biggest Comebacks and Collapses in Golf

Big comebacks represent sustained great performance under pressure and make for memorable golf tournaments.

Panels
College Football Analytics: Analyzing Tracking Data and Film Concurrently to Get an Upper Hand

Football coaches want every tool possible to help them make smart decisions when it comes to analyzing opponents, assessing recruits, and helping the team improve

Panels
Football & CTE: How New Data Can Save the NFL

Pundits have predicted the demise of the NFL ever since our research team published that the 110 of the first 111 former NFL players to have their brains studied at Boston University post-mortem were diagnosed with CTE, a degenerative brain disease caused by playing football.

Panels
USA Swimming: The Analytics Driving Olympic Performance

At the 2016 Olympic Games, USA Swimming won 33 medals – the most of any sport at the Olympics and over 25% of all US medals. 15 of those 33 medals were less than 0.5 seconds away from 4th place

Panels
The Relevant and the Frequent: Engaging Soccer Coaches with Visual Analytics. An FC Barcelona Story

Soccer, the sport with the highest point value in the world, has a fundamental problem when it comes to analyzing it: there are many frequent events and very few that are relevant.

Panels
The Football Development Model: Youth Football Reimagined

Join USA Football CEO and Executive Director Scott Hallenbeck to gain insight on the Football Development Model (FDM).

Panels
Introducing a New Model of Pro Team Sports: Athletes Unlimited

Athletes Unlimited is a new model of pro sports where athletes are decision-makers and individual players are champions of team sports.

Panels
Who Will Win? Predicting, Visualizing, and Understanding Performance in Professional Golf

Statistical analysis of professional golf presents a unique set of challenges, and advantages, compared to other major professional sports.

At the Intersection of AI and Human Potential

Sports analytics focuses on new ways to create and slice data, like that found on the back of an athlete’s trading card.

Panels
Leveraging Data in Sponsorships

The business of sponsorships is rapidly evolving as the needs of businesses continue to grow and demand more data to support their partnerships.

Panels
Data Driven: How the Giants Are Using Analytics to Satisfy Parking Demands

The San Francisco Giants are building a new foundation to support their business. Literally. The Mission Rock development will be a new mixed-use neighborhood consisting of parks, open space, residential, commercial and retail construction.

Panels
Using Data and Analytics to Create Content Strategies to Protect and Improve Reputation

Every athlete, team and sponsor will at some point be directly, or indirectly involved in a crisis of reputation.

Panels
Rushing to Analytics: Hockey’s Ability to Predict and Project Talent

Hockey is traditionally a conservative sport with a lot of attention paid to scouting.

Panels
Sports Storytelling: Lessons Learned from Sue Bird and the “Bullet Man”

The most impactful journalism is distinctive not derivative. It tells the stories no one else is telling.

Panels
Formula 1 x Sustainability: Launching the Sport’s First-Ever Sustainability Strategy

Over its 70 year history, Formula 1 has pioneered numerous technologies and innovations that have positively contributed to combat carbon emissions.

Panels
Finding Expected + Unexpected Goals in the NHL

Expected goals are the foundation of some of the most popular and comprehensive stats in hockey analytics today, advancing discussions beyond the shot totals more popularly known as “Corsi.”

Panels
Instant Feedback: Using Real-time Data to Improve Training, Case Studies from MIT Sports Lab

There’s an abundance of data being collected on athletes in training settings, yet without coaches and athletes being able to quickly access this information near real-time, the value and utility of this information can be greatly diminished.

Panels
Intangibles: Unlocking the Science and Soul of Team Chemistry

Does team chemistry exist? If so, what is it? And how does if affect productivity?

Panels
Numbers Don’t Lie: Using Data in the Weight Room to Enhance On-Field Performance

Periodization of a training program has been a long debated topic, especially when it comes to in-season training.

Panels
Playing Catchup: Estimating Player & Positional Value in (American) Football presented by ESPN

Football is the least amenable major American sport to estimate all player contributions due to fewer player stats, scoring events, and games.

Panels
Using Digital Ticketing to Drive Value

The Boston Bruins business operations team made a significant decision heading into the 2017-18 season.

Panels
The Professional Ennui League: Thriving in the age of digital distraction

Come for the shock, stay for the horror, and learn “Why do people do what they do?!” Today, that question is a more pressing than ever.

Competitive Advantages
How the Golden State Warriors Use Analytics to Optimize Fan Experience

In 2019 the Golden State Warriors opened the doors to Chase Center, a brand-new, world-class sports and entertainment destination.

Competitive Advantages
It’s All Hoops: The Intersection of NBA Analytics, Fantasy and Gambling presented by ESPN

On ESPN.com, there are separate verticals for the NBA, fantasy basketball, gambling and analytics.

Panels
Ticketing Analytics: Secondary To None

Ticketing and game attendance remains the cornerstone of sports organizations.

Panels
Built To Last: The Importance of Inclusion & Diversity in Sports Organizations Presented By Wasserman

Countless studies have shown that diverse teams outperform homogeneous counterparts. Yet in an environment where everyone is looking for a competitive edge, why is the sports industry so far behind?

Panels
Fanalytics 2.0

In our first “Fanalytics” panel in 2013, we speculated the ways to collect and use data to improve the fan experience.

Panels
Changing Sports: Beyond Ownership

While wins and losses are paramount, learn how owners and team leaders of some of sports’ most beloved teams – Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers, and the emerging celeb-favorite Los Angeles FC – are extending their sports property investments in creative and meaningful ways.

Panels
Press any Key to Start: How to Build an ESports Brand

In 2019, The Overwatch League was the only major sports league to show a rise in television viewers from the 18 to 34-year-old demographic.

Panels
MLS Growth Story: A Conversation With Don Garber and Jonathan Kraft

Today, Major League Soccer (MLS) is one of the most successful growth stories in American sports history.

Panels
Save the Data: The Future of Data & Technology

Technology has transformed how sports organizations engage with their fans and collect information.

Panels
Finding the Favorite: Engaging Fans and Bettors

Daily Fantasy captivated a generation of players that do not consider themselves sports bettors.

Panels
Investing With the Bulls: Wall Street Analytics In Sports

Not only has the popularity of sports investing increased in recent years, but the value of sports franchises has grown by 3-5x in the past decade.

Panels
How Big is Your Jumbotron: Optimizing the Venue Experience

Over the past decade, 85% of sports venues have invested in significant improvements to meet the changing needs of fans and enhancing the overall experience.

Panels
Start Me Up: Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Reddit, the Segway, Daily Fantasy Sports, and predicting presidential elections.

Panels
Tackling Name, Image, and Likeliness in College Sports

California’s passing of the Fair Pay to Play Act in late 2019 reignited the longstanding, nationwide debate over collegiate athlete compensation.

Panels
2020 Hackathon

The 6th annual Hackathon at the 2020 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference will bring innovative and analytical minds together to create groundbreaking solutions in the sports industry.

Activities
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Unlocking the Code (ing): Winning with Data and App Dev presented by OutSystems

Unlocking the Code (ing): Winning with Data and App Dev presented by OutSystems

Workshops
How Cricket Innovates at 100mph presented by Outsystems

Not always the first sport that springs to mind when thinking about digital innovation, the England and Wales Cricket Board has been on a transformation of its own over the last few years to becoming an evidence-based, data-driven organisation from top to bottom

Panels
2020 Startup Competition & Trade Show

The Startup Competition and Trade Show provides an opportunity for selected startups and small companies to showcase their innovations in the fields of sports-related technologies, products, and services.

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Using Google Cloud to Take Sports Analytics to the Next Level presented by Google Cloud

The increasing volume, variety, and velocity of sports data provides both great opportunities and challenges for data scientists working in sports.

Panels
How to Create a Metric Using Statcast Data presented by MLB

In January 2020, MLB unveiled Infield Outs Above Average, a first look at to answering the question of how to analyze an infielder’s defensive prowess.

Workshops
Open for Business: How An Open Distribution Ticketing Network is Changing the Way the NFL Operates presented by KAGR

The NFL entered into new ticketing partnerships at the start of the 2018 season, embracing an innovative open distribution ticketing network model to provide more verified access points for fans to buy tickets and gain a deeper understanding of season ticket members, primary and secondary ticket purchasers, and transferred tickets.

Panels
Robotics Room

The Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is proud to present the Robotics room with FIRST, a display of the sport of the mind.

Activities
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Getting Real with Real-Time Data presented by AXS

Mike Conley, Cavaliers Operating Co. LLC’s Chief Information Officer, provides a deep dive into how the organization is leveraging AXS’ real-time data streams to reshape the fan experience and day-to-day business.

Panels
Sponsorships In The 2020s: Leveraging Technology to Uncover Gems Presented By Hookit

From headphones to tennis shoes, sponsorship influences buying decisions because of one simple reason: fans want to be like their sports idols.

Panels
Sports Gambling Innovation: Betting on the Future Presented by Sig Sports Analytics

In the 18 months since the Professional & Amateur Sports Protection Act was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, revenue generated across states offering legal gambling has reached an astounding $15 billion.

Panels
Sports & Analytics Trivia Blitz

The Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is proud to present Sports & Analytics Trivia Blitz, an hour-long sports trivia game played in the style of ‘Jeopardy!’

Activities
Game (Show) Theory: An Omnibus Conversation with Jeopardy GOAT Ken Jennings and Nate Silver

What is “the next field to be transformed by analytics”? Tune in to hear the clue.

Panels
Measuring the Immeasurable: Solving Soccer Analytics Using Machine Learning and Computer Vision presented by STATS Perform

Measuring team and player performance in soccer is extremely challenging due to the continuous, low-scoring and strategic nature of the game

Panels
Defending The Pass: Using Player Tracking Data to Gain New Insights Presented By ESPN

“You have to pass to set up the run.”

Panels
The Power of Location Data Presented by Deloitte

Our presentation will focus on the power of location data and how sports teams can use this information to better predict fan behavior, provide more personalized fan experiences, and increase the value of sponsorships.

Panels
Innovating For The Next Generation of America's Pastime Presented By Google Cloud

America’s pastime has seen attendance drop in recent years, yet the league set digital ticketing and consumption records in 2019.

Panels
2020 DraftKings Sports Gaming Innovation Challenge

DraftKings, the digital sports entertainment and gaming company, invites graduate students and those attending the conference to enter their Sports Gaming Innovation Challenge! Graduate students from around the country will be tasked with creating and presenting a new sports gaming concept to DraftKings.

Activities
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Research Papers

A No-Tanking Draft Allocation Policy

Evan Munro, PhD Student, Stanford University
Martino Banchio, PhD Student, Stanford University

Download the Full Paper Here
Accuracy and National Bias of Figure Skating Judges: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Vincent Dumoulin, Institute of Statistics, Université de Neuchâtel
Hugues Mercier, Institutes of Computer Science and Mathematics, Université de Neuchâtel

Download the Full Paper Here
Bettor Up: Assess, Analyze, and Achieve

Clay Graham, Chief Analytical Architect, Advantage Analytics LLC
Candace Graham, President/Owner, Epic Win Group LLC
Sola Talabi, Lead Nuclear Engineer, Pittsburgh-Technical

Download the Full Paper Here
Changing the Major League Baseball: A Whole New Ballgame

Meredith J. Wills, Contributor, The Athletic

Download the Full Paper Here
Characterization of Space and Time-Dependence of 3-Point Shots in Basketball

Gabin Rolland, Research Assistant, LIRIS – École Centrale de Lyon
Romain Vuillemot, Assistant Professor, LIRIS – École Centrale de Lyon
Wouter Bos, PhD, CNRS – Ecole Centrale de Lyon
Nathan Rivière, Student, Ecole Centrale de Lyon

Download the Full Paper Here
Extracting Player Tracking Data from Video Using Non-Stationary Cameras and a Combination of Computer Vision Techniques

Neil Johnson, Sports Analytics Developer, ESPN

Download the Full Paper Here
High School Poster: A STARTING POINT FOR PREDICTING TEAM SUCCESS IN VOLLEYBALL

Brian Xu, The Kinkaid School, Student

Download the Full Paper Here
High School Poster: HOW THE “COLOMBIAN CANNONBALL” FINALLY BROKE THROUGH – ANALYZING THE 2018 BRITISH OPEN SQUASH CHAMPIONSHIP

Henry Serrano-Wu

Download the Full Paper Here
Learning Feature Representations from Football Tracking

Michael Horton, Machine Learning Researcher, Sportlogiq

Download the Full Paper Here
Measuring the Impact of Robotic Umpires

James Zhan, Undergraduate Student, Goergen Institute of Data Science, University of Rochester
John Polimeni, Undergraduate Student, Goergen Institute of Data Science, University of Rochester
Luke Gerstner, Undergraduate Student, Goergen Institute of Data Science, University of Rochester

Download the Full Paper Here
NBA Lineup Analysis on Clustered Player Tendencies: A new approach to the positions of basketball & modeling lineup efficiency

Samuel Kalman, Purdue University Undergraduate
Jonathan Bosch, Syracuse University Undergraduate

Download the Full Paper Here
PFF WAR: Modeling Player Value in American Football

Eric Eager, Pro Football Focus
George Chahrouri, Pro Football Focus

Download the Full Paper Here
Player Benchmarking and Outcomes: A Behavioral Science Approach

Ambra Mazzelli, MIT Sloan and Asia School of Business
Robert S. Nason, Concordia University

Download the Full Paper Here
Player Chemistry: Striving for a Perfectly Balanced Soccer Team

Lotte Bransen, Lead Data Scientist at SciSports, Netherlands
Jan Van Haaren, Chief Product & Technology Officer at SciSports and Research Fellow at KU Leuven, Belgium

Download the Full Paper Here
Projecting NFL Potential from College Career Performance Curve

Brian Lehman, Co-Founder & VP Visionist, Inc.

Download the Full Paper Here
Pulling Starters

Daniel F. Stone, Associate Professor of Economics, Bowdoin College
Brian Mills, Associate Professor, Department of Kinesiology & Health Education, University of Texas at Austin
Duncan Finigan, Associate Product Manager, Toast/ Bowdoin College, 2018

Download the Full Paper Here
Running it Twice (or Thrice): Double-Header and Triple-Header Baseball Arbitration

Michael J. Hasday, Lecturer, DeSales University

Download the Full Paper Here
Scoring a Touchdown with Variable Pricing Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment in the NFL Ticket Markets

Ovunc Yilmaz, Assistant Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations, Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame
Hayri Alper Arslan, Weatherall Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Economics, Queen’s University
Necati Tereyagoglu, Assistant Professor of Management Science, Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina

Download the Full Paper Here
Seeing in to the future: using self-propelled particle models to aid player decision-making in soccer

Francisco Peralta Alguacil: Football Data Scientist, Hammarby IF
Pablo Piñones Arce, Hammarby IF
David Sumpter, Professor of Applied Mathematics, Uppsala University
Javier Fernandez, Head of Sports Analytics, FC Barcelona

Download the Full Paper Here
Swing Shift: A Mathematical Approach to Defensive Positioning in Baseball

John M. Harris, Professor of Mathematics, Furman University
Elizabeth L. Bouzarth, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Furman University
Benjamin C. Grannan, Assistant Professor of Business and Accounting, Furman University
Andrew J. Hartley, Senior Mathematics Major, Furman University
Kevin R. Hutson, Professor of Mathematics, Furman University
Ella M. Morton, Senior Mathematics Major, Furman University

Download the Full Paper Here
The right place at the right time: Advanced off-ball metrics for exploiting an opponent’s spatial weakenesses in soccer

Sergio Llana, Data Scientist, FC Barcelona
Pau Madrero, Data Scientist, FC Barcelona
Javier Fernández, Head of Sports Analytics, FC Barcelona

Download the Full Paper Here
You Cannot Do That Ben Stokes: Dynamically Predicting Shot Type in Cricket Using a Personalized Deep Neural Network

Dr Will Gürpınar-Morgan, Senior Data Scientist, Stats Perform
Dr Daniel Dinsdale, Data Scientist, Stats Perform
Dr Joe Gallagher, Data Scientist, Stats Perform
Aditya Cherukumudi, Artificial Intelligence Scientist, Stats Perform
Dr Patrick Lucey, Chief Scientist, Stats Perform

Download the Full Paper Here

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