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THE AGE OF ANALYTICSMIT  Sloan  attendance  as  a  reflection  of  sports  data  demand  

• Annual conference is the world’s premier forum to discuss the increasing role of analytics in the sports industry

• Premiered in 2007 (co-founded by former STATS employee and current Rockets GM Daryl Morey)

• 2007 attendance: 1752016 attendance: 3,900

• An increase of more than 2,000 percent over a decade

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• Sports has always been a passion driven by statistics

• The advent of data-based fantasy games:According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, the estimated number of active fantasy players in 1988 was 500,000; in 2016, that total had Increased to 57.4

million

• Analytics around scouting and fitness:As sports teams and leagues continue their exponential climb as big businesses with high financial stakes, quantitative research has become a prerequisite. Athletes are just as much investments as performers.

• In an unparalleled age of technology advancement, information access and social communication, a more sophisticated generation of fans continues to explode.

WHY THE SURGE OF FAN INTEREST IN NUMBERS?

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• Billy Beane ushered in a 21st-century “Moneyball” revolution

• In May, the Phoenix Coyotes hired 26-year-old John Chayka – co-founder of a hockey analytics firm to general manager

• There are 11 current MLB GMs age 40 or under

• In rare cross-sport front-office exchange, the Cleveland Browns hired former Los Angeles Dodgers GM (and Beane “Moneyball” partner) Paul DePodesta in January as chief strategy officer

THE CHANGING FACE OF SPORTS CONTENTSports  Content  starts  to  reflect  the  changing  face  of  the  front

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• With the advent and evolution of internet publishing, everyone canbe a writer; barriers to entry are eliminated

• Differentiation – by content, tone or opinion – becomes the key to building an audience. Straight news becomes commoditized

• Advanced statistics enter the sports vernacular through an online grassroots effort of die-hard fans

• An infinite reservoir of topics… and an audience for them all

• The industry takes notice and Bleacher Report gets rich

THE BLOGOSPHERE TAKES ADVANTAGE& A NICHE AUDIENCE GOES MAINSTREAM

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• SportVU takes on the NBA, revolutionizes optical tracking and helps make Zach Lowe a star on Grantland

• Baseball Prospectus, Baseball Reference and FanGraphs go to WAR as Statcast joins PITCHf/x

• NFL catches up to the Big Data revolution, works with Zebra on RFID player wearables to take the next step in tracking and step up its broadcasts

• Lagging behind but with a plan in place, the NHL partners with SportVision as Corsi enters the conversation

AN INVESTMENT IN ANALYTICSBy  the  media  and  the  leagues

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• No need for credentials or to fight the media scrum!

• Core tools: An internet connection and personal passion, expertise and insight

• Compelling content hits a demographic sweet spot

• Differentiated with no shortage of story ideas

• The advent and accessibility of evolving multimedia tools lend themselves to creative storytelling outside of straight text

ALL PARTS ANALYSIS, NO PARTS ACCESS

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BUILDING A BETTER STORY

CONTEXT IS JUST AS INTEGRAL AS CONTENT

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• Do not get lost in The Matrix!

• The biggest challenges to tracking: 1) How to capture; 2) What to do with Big Data

• Spewing numbers just because you have access to advanced statistics is empty

• Data needs to be actionable or have a sense of relativity to be valuable

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PROPRIETARY DATA HITS THE PUBLICDOMAIN TO FURTHER FAN ENGAGEMENT

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The exponential upswing of the technology curve means the sky’s the limit

Leagues’ product expands beyond on-the-field action into major technology andmedia players

Athlete wearables start to redefine fitness

The launch of ESPN.com/Analytics builds off the success of FiveThirtyEight.comas analytics sites continue to become more mainstream

Expanded and refined Big Data combines with increased processing power and NLG (natural language generation) platforms to tip off analysts to trends… or write the stories themselves!

THE FUTURE OF ANALYTICS & DATA-­DRIVENJOURNALISM

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BRIAN OREFICEDIRECTOR,  NEWS  OPERATIONSBOREFICE@STATS.COM

(847)  583-­2606STATS.COM