The Present and the Future
Integrating analytics into the professional sports industry has been a process. It has taken persistence and significant investments from organizational leaders to initiate the movement. Certainly, their contributions hold value and have laid a framework for all of the future extensions that data analytics may lead to.
Through my research I’ve become familiar will only a portion of the data analytics undertaking of professional sports. Simply, there are two main avenues for integration, either on-field or off-field analytics. The on-field component refers to improving game performances through tactics surrounding teams and players. Data analytics can indicate certain patterns or tendencies that coaches can make adjustments around. On the other hand, the off-field aspect centers around the business side of things in sports. For instance, organizations can better assess the value of players, and also the breakdown of key financials.
What’s Next?
In the future, more and more software will assist in the growth of sports analytics. Interestingly, many data processing companies and third party individuals have made partnerships or have done consulting work for leagues and teams. Above all, the data for professional sports is available, but the difference lies in how effectively it can be interpreted and applied. In my opinion, for organizations, it may not even mean having the biggest data staff or team, the key element that it comes to down to being able to process data into understandable information through whatever means necessary.
Truly, I believe sports analytics has an extremely high ceiling. It has the potential to impact sports on more than just one level. To explain, commitments to data analytics in professional sports can lead to a large amount of new jobs and careers, and can also impact the gambling world tremendously. In years to come, I would not be surprised to observe universities and colleges develop new routes for individuals to learn more specifically about the sports application of data science. Likewise, I think that there is definitely a niche in sports betting where analytics can be embraced. Moreover, as technologies improve, computer systems and software tools will be able to help predict outcomes based on simulations. This type of information could be extremely useful for individuals wagering bets. Overall, I really do consider the possibilities of sports analytics to be endless, and I’m excited to witness the next steps of growth yet to come.
