Sports and Digital Analytics

By: Josie Sittig


  While on a media agency tour with the CoJMC in New York, I met a guy who worked for Twitter. He talked about how he has been working to combine his digital analytics skills and love of sports. He talked about how digital analytics are becoming a big part of the sports industry. There are many positives that analytics bring to the sports industry. For my post this week, I explored just a few of those reasons.  

 The first attribute that analytics bring to sports is that it can help predict future star players. Hudl, a Nebraska based company, provides game reviewing footage and software to coaches that can be of use during the recruitment season. Sports analysts can track many athletes by using digital analytics software that Hudl uses to keep up with potential recruits and commitments. The second skill that digital analytics brings to sports is helping teams' and organizations' websites gain traction. When analysts can see what fans are clicking on, they can remove unimportant content. Analysts can also use data generated from ticket sales and social media to work on attracting new fans and keeping the old ones. The third skill that digital sports analytics can provide and promote is player safety. Players across many sports wear special data collectors to measure their heart rate, acceleration, and recording speed. On top of those features, coaches can use the data collectors can report how hard a player was hit in a collision and then compare that with past data to see the overall risk and damage a player has caused.

 I think that digital insights will continue to become a big part of the sports world as coaches begin to see how new technology can benefit the team on and off the field. This data will be able to provide important information to the coaches about their players, but the most important aspect will be how the data is used after the event or situation has happened.





SOURCES:

Alamar , B., & Mehrotra, V. (2016, July 14). Beyond 'Moneyball': Rapidly evolving world of sports analytics, Part I. Retrieved November 19, 2017, from http://analytics-magazine.org/beyond-moneyball-the-rapidly-evolving-world-of-sports-analytics-part-i/


Lieppman , A. (n.d.). How Digital Analytics are Changing the Game for NFL Club Websites. Retrieved November 19, 2017, from http://www.sloansportsconference.com/content/how-digital-analytics-are-changing-the-game-for-nfl-club-websites/


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