Sports analytics

Sports analytics are a collection of statistics or biometric data that can provide a team or individual a competitive advantage. Through the collection, refinement, and analysis of data, coaches and other staff members are able to inform athletes about their performance in order to assist decision making both during and prior to sporting events. The term "sports analytics" was popularized by the 2011 film, Moneyball, in which Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt) relies heavily on the use of player analytics to build a competitive MLB team on a limited budget.

There are two main types of sports analytics - on-field analytics and off-field analytics. On-field analytics involves tracking key on-field metrics that may influence an athlete's methodologies and in-game strategy. It also involves tracking an athlete's biometric data and vitals to influence their training or performance levels. Off-field analytics deals with the business side of sports. It handles monitoring key off-field metrics like ticket sales, merchandise sales, and fan engagement. Essentially, it provides shareholders with information that would lead to higher growth and profits.

Sports analytics have also had a significant impact on Online Sports Betting as bettors now have access to more information to aid decision making. New avenues of gambling, like parlays and fantasy leagues have lead to the rise of new analytical tools. For example, companies and webpages can now provide fans with up to the minute information for their betting needs.

Sport-specific analytics

Major League Baseball (MLB)

Sports analytics in baseball, also known as sabermetrics, is the application of statistical analysis to baseball in order to measure in-game activity. The term is derived from the acronym SABR, which stands for the Society for American Baseball Research, founded in 1971. The field was popularized by American baseball writer, historian, and statistician Bill James in the 1980s and has since been used by many major league baseball teams to assist in decision making. Sabermetrics can be used to measure a player's performance, a team's performance, and even the performance of individual pitches. It can also be used to make predictions about future performance and to identify undervalued players. Some common statistics that have become vital to the game include:

• Batting average measures a player's batting performance by dividing the number of hits by the number of at-bats. As one of the most commonly discussed baseball statistics, it primarily shows a player's tendencies when batting against different types of pitches. Batting average is expressed a decimal to three decimal points. A player with a batting average of .300 is commonly said to be "batting three-hundred". Batting averages could be taken beyond the .001 measurement. In this context, .001 is considered a "point", such that a .235 batter is 5 points higher than a .230 batter. A high batting average is considered an indicator of a good batter.

• On-base percentage (OBP)

• Slugging average (SLG)

• Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched (WHIP)

National Basketball Association (NBA)

The field of basketball analytics has recently seen a large surge in popularity in the last decade, with many teams in the NBA utilizing advanced statistical methods to analyze player roster, team shot selection, and offensive/defensive performance. The use of analytics in basketball is based on the idea that traditional basketball statistics, such as points scored, assists, and rebounds, turnover, etc. do not fully capture a player's or team's performance. Popular metrics used by many teams include the following:

• Player Efficiency Rating (PER) is a player metric developed by ESPN.com columnist John Hollinger. In John's words, "The PER sums up all a player's positive accomplishments, subtracts the negative accomplishments, and returns a per-minute rating of a player's performance."
• Win Shares is used to estimate the number of wins contributed by a player.
• Offensive and Defensive rating is a team based metric that rates how effective a team is on the offensive and defensive side.
• Plus/Minus, also known as box score, measures the point differential when a player is on the court per 100 possessions compared to a league-average player.
• True Shooting Percentage (TS%) is a measure of a player's shooting efficiency that takes into account field goals, three-point field goals, and free throws.