Sports Analytics

This chapter considers the nature of sports analytics as the use of statistical analysis to support decision making in sports organisations with specific emphasis on decisions related to the sporting performance of teams. The early developments of analytics in baseball, American football and association football are discussed before focusing attention on Moneyball, the story of how the Oakland Athletics in Major League Baseball used analytics as a competitive strategy. The difficulties of transferring the Moneyball experience into invasion team sports such as the various codes of football and hockey as well as basketball are investigated particularly with regard to the development of player rating systems. The chapter concludes with a case study of coach-led analytics at the English rugby union club, Saracens.