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The official podcast channel of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference
Episodes
Thursday Jul 07, 2022
Thursday Jul 07, 2022
As esports rapidly gains popularity, leagues and teams are facing new and exciting challenges engaging their digitally native audiences. The opportunity is huge: 2.5 billion people play online games, generating nearly $1 billion in esports revenue. Leveraging social media, streaming platforms, special in person events, limited merchandise drops, and much more, esports organizations are redefining the approach to fandom. This panel brings together perspectives from CLG, FlyQuest Sports, Riot Games, and OverActive Media to discuss those strategies, what they mean for esports, and the lessons traditional sports can learn to drive better digital fan engagement.
Thursday Jul 07, 2022
Thursday Jul 07, 2022
For generations sports have relied on children inheriting their fandom from their parents or from participation in youth sports. For Gen Z, however, that may not be the case. According to a recent study, 23 percent of respondents ages 25 and below said they are passionate sports fans, compared to 42 percent of millennials. Yet, not all hope is lost, as some companies have thrived in reaching this younger demo. As sports compete for Zoomers' screens, successful marketers are turning to behavioral science and analytics to reach the youngest sector of sports fans before it's too late. Learn how leaders from Twitter, Buzzer, NASCAR, and ESPN entice young fans and engage with GenZ.
Thursday Jul 07, 2022
Thursday Jul 07, 2022
A sports fan is an enthusiastic devotee with an intense, and occasionally overwhelming, enthusiasm. Sports continue to dominate our mindshare, whether that be watching, reading, listening, or playing. This past year led to some of the most significant disruption of fandom from sports consumption to interactivity via NFTs and gambling to an ever-evolving game-day experience. With more ways to consume sports than ever before, what is the future of the fan? Is it at home with AR/VR, or is it an interactive and high-tech experience at venues? Is it more of a premium offering, or a simple get in the door membership at events? Is the season ticket dead, or will loyalty programs be even more critical moving forward? This panel brings together industry thought leaders who are leading change through entertainment, content, experiences, data, and fan interactivity. What fans want is changing - hear from those changing the game on their behalf.
Thursday Jul 07, 2022
Thursday Jul 07, 2022
Michael Rubin - CEO, Fanatics
Gary Vaynerchuk - CEO, VaynerMedia
Jessica Gelman (moderator) - CEO, Kraft Analytics Group
Serial entrepreneurs Michael Rubin and Gary Vaynerchuk are two of the most prolific disruptors in sports and entertainment. From an early embrace of technology and a focus on how customers want to engage with sports, Michael and Gary have rewritten the ecommerce, social media, and now NFT landscape while growing global brands and movements. Their shared drive for embracing the “new” has led both entrepreneurs into the NFT world and to each other with the creation of Candy Digital, a next-generation digital collectible company. Join Michael and Gary as they sit down with Jessica Gelman to discuss how the blueprint for succeeding in business has changed over time and how technological innovations are on the horizon will upend the sports ecosystem.
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
It may not have been obvious to those watching NHL opening night, but there were more cameras than ever pointed towards the ice. And they weren’t from your local newspaper. Over the offseason, the NHL implemented and outfitted each area with cameras that could track player and puck movement to the millisecond. With this move, the NHL fully ignited a race to find key, meaningful insights like it never had before. With the amount of data available to teams at an all-time high, and as the number of analytical GMs continues to rise, this panel brings together team analysts, analytics experts, and league executives in order to explore the current state of hockey analytics, how puck tracking has already started to shape decisions, and what it will mean even further down the road.
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
It’s been 45 years since Bill James started publishing the quintessential Baseball Abstract series in 1977. In that time, the use of data has transformed the game of baseball. Yet, despite how long analytics have been a part of baseball, there are always new questions that data can help answer. How will the new, supposedly less live baseball impact lineup construction? How will it impact swing style? With the introduction of robot umps, what will be the impact for catchers who are great at pitch-framing? This panel brings together baseball analytics experts, including the legendary founder of Moneyball Bill James, to discuss the current state of the game.
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
Kevin Clark (moderator) - Staff Writer, The Ringer
Although NFL executives may have been slower to embrace the analytics movement than their counterparts in MLB and NBA, 2021 marked the first year that every team in the league had a dedicated analytics staffer and was capped with the first GM hire from a true analytics background in Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. With every passing year, there are cutting-edge statistics being developed: Completion Percentage Over Expectation, Pass and Run Block Win Rate, among others. Join former All-Pro lineman Mitchell Schwartz, LA Rams COO Kevin Demoff, Ravens analyst Sarah Mallepalle and ESPN analytics expert Brian Burke to explore the different ways NFL teams are using analytics from roster-building to playcaling, with a special emphasis on what has for a long time been very tough to quantify: line play.
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
Allison Feaster - VP of Player Development & Organizational Growth, Boston Celtics
Haralabos Voulgaris - Former Director of Quantitative Research and Development, Dallas Mavericks
Katherine Evans - VP of Research and Information Systems, Monumental Sports & Entertainment
Kirk Goldsberry - NBA Analyst, ESPN
Kevin Arnovitz (moderator) - NBA Writer, ESPN.com
The NBA analytics revolution has happened: big men are shooting more three-pointers, mid-range shots have declined, and small ball lineups have seen their heyday. Now, the pace of change is slower; in fact, the number of made three-pointers and number of free-throws per game has actually declined this year. How is analytics movement evolving and why? This panel brings together high-profile figures in the basketball analytics community to discuss what further insights can be derived from the ever-increasing amounts of data available to teams.
Thursday Jun 23, 2022
Thursday Jun 23, 2022
Ross Tucker - Sports Scientist
Katie Barnes - Feature Writer, ESPN
Joanna Harper - PhD, Loughborough University
Malcolm Gladwell (moderator) - Author
Data brings important insights to better ground discussions, especially the conversation of transgender athletes. Transgender athletes are increasingly competing at the highest levels, raising the need for data to define fair play. More nuanced discussions around regulation, legislation, and overall competition are becoming commonplace. Recently, the IOC released new guidelines on Olympic participation and US states have shifted their policy under the Biden Administration further resurfacing tough conversations. Access to sports is vital for key learnings: experiencing a team, the empowerment one feels in times of triumph, and the lessons we learn in times of failure. Join Malcolm Gladwell as he leads a conversation on the path forward for the inclusion of transgender athletes in sports.
Thursday Jun 23, 2022
Thursday Jun 23, 2022
Miguel Cardona - U.S. Secretary of Education
Maura Healey - Massachusetts Attorney General
Laurie Hernandez - American Artistic Gymnast
Sue Bird - Point Guard, Seattle Storm
Shira Springer (moderator) - Journalist and Lecturer, Boston University & MIT Sloan
Sports inspire us to fight harder, train longer, and continuously strive to be the best. The lessons learned through sport are often the foundation for success later in life. Since Title IX passed in 1972, women have increasingly gained traction in leadership positions across the United States. As a law rooted in equal opportunity and prohibiting discrimination based on sex, Title IX has changed the landscape in sports and across industries. Yet, the fight for equality in sports is not over and battles continue over the law. Hear from government and policy leaders Miguel Cardona and Maura Healy alongside professional athletes Sue Bird and Laurie Hernandez on the impact to date, the current fight for law protection, and why the future of Title IX is more important than ever.