Abstract: 

Over the last decade, there have been significant changes to the breadth, depth, and availability of sports data. This along with advances in computing power and data analysis have had a significant impact on the sports world. Teams now utilize massive amounts of data to help drive decision making throughout the organization, media companies now utilize data to create and drive content, and fans now talk about player efficiency and win probability. These changes to how sports and played and consumed are just the beginning however as small scale experiments become standard practice and new tools from machine learning are used to attack larger scale projects. While the changes in sports from data and analysis have been significant, they are just the beginning.

Bio: 

Ben is the Director of Sports Analytics at ESPN; has taught at Columbia University, Univeristy of San Francisco, and Menlo College; and is the author of Sports Analytics: A Guide for Coaches, Managers, and Other Decision Makers. He has consulted with teams in the NFL and NBA, including the OKC Thunder, and with a variety of companies in sports analytics. He has published academic research in sports analytics and has written for AllthingsD, ESPN, Analytics Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal. Additionally, he founded the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, the first peer-reviewed journal for research in sports analytics.