MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference
Encyclopedia
The MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference goal is to provide a forum to discuss the increasing role of analytics in the sports industry. Founded in 2006, the conference is co-chaired by Daryl Morey
(General Manager & Managing Director of Basketball Operations for the Houston Rockets
) and Jessica Gelman (Vice President of Customer Marketing & Strategy for the Kraft Sports Group) who oversee MIT Sloan
students (from the EMS Club) in the planning and operating of the yearly conference. It is open to anyone interested in sports and has been attended by students from over 150 different schools and representatives from over 50 professional sports teams in the MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS
, and EPL
. The conference is held in the Boston
area and while its location has moved from the MIT campus
to higher capacity convention centers, it has always occurred during February or March. One of the largest student run conferences in the country, it has been sold out every year and has become the premier venue for sports analytics discussion. ESPN
has been the presenting sponsor since 2010 and the conference has garnered national attention through media outlets such as Sports Illustrated
, BusinessWeek
, NBC Sports
, Fox Sports, ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption
, and Forbes
. ESPN columnist Bill Simmons
has nicknamed the conference Dorkapalooza.
located in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. The two-day event will feature many new and returning panelists and has already secured the appearance of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman
, Bill James
, Dallas Mavericks
owner Mark Cuban
, sports agent Scott Boras
, NBA Deputy Commissioner & COO Adam Silver
, ESPN commentator Michael Wilbon
, and Bill Simmons.
, then-Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations and General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays
and Jamie McCourt
, then-CEO of the Los Angeles Dodger.
CEO and co-owner Wycliffe Grousbeck
. Among the eleven panels offered during the day, the most popular was Defending the Title, which included decision-makers from the then reigning champions of the four major sports leagues; Bill Polian
(President, Indianapolis Colts
), RC Buford (General Manager, San Antonio Spurs
), Brian Burke
(Then General Manager, Anaheim Ducks
), and Jed Hoyer (Then Assistant General Manager, Boston Red Sox
).
discussed how to quantify the contribution made by star players to a team or city. The other featured panel, Evolution of the Fan Experience, looked at how new technology, stadium design, game innovations, and customer initiatives impact fan experience. It was moderated by Bill Simmons and included ESPN commentator Jeff Van Gundy
and Brian Burke.
in South Boston to accommodate the growing interest. The conference was headlined by a panel that addressed the limits of statistical analysis entitled What Geeks Don't Get: The Limits of Moneyball and was moderated by author Michael Lewis
and featured Bill Polian, Jonathan Kraft, Mark Cuban and Bill Simmons. One specific situation discussed was the November 15, 2009 game between the New England Patriots
and Indianapolis Colts in which the Patriots, up 34-28 with the ball on their own 28 yard line, decided to go for it on 4th & 2 rather than punt. Among the other popular panels were Coaching Analytics with New Jersey Nets
Head Coach Avery Johnson
and Baltimore Orioles
Manager Buck Showalter
and Next Generation Sports Management and Ownership with Boston Celtics
Owner Steve Pagliuca and Tampa Bay Rays
President Matt Silverman
.
and featured a dialog about whether modern athletes' skills are innate or developed through extensive training. For the remainder of the conference, each time-slot had 3 panels running simultaneously and covered the standard topics of Baseball, Basketball, and Football analytics along with a range of new content. Some of the more popular new panels included The Decision: How Players and Teams Will Choose in the Future with retired basketball player Donny Marshall
, CEO and Founder of Priority Sports & Entertainment
Mark Bartelsteain, R.C. Buford, Brian Burke, and Michael Wilbon, Referee Analytics with longtime NFL official Mike Carey
, and The Future of the Game Day Experience: HDTV vs. Live Events anchored by Co-founder and Chairman of HDNet
Mark Cuban. The research paper track was expanded and showcased the work of nineteen authors. The winner, Arup Sen, presented The Moral Hazard in Long‐Term Guaranteed Contracts: Theory and Evidence from the NBA which analyzed the effect the final year of a contract has on player performance. Additionally, the 2011 conference added several new facets to the traditional panel discussions. These events include the Evolution of Sport (EOS) presentations, the First Pitch MBA Sports Business Case Competition, and a trade show that offers sports-industry startups the ability to demonstrate products or services and connect with potential customers or business partners.
talks, these presentations offer individuals a chance to present a message, idea or thought that could someday change the face of sport. The 2011 conference featured 14 speakers who were each given roughly 20 minutes to address the audience. Two of the most popular presentations were by Mark Sweeney, founder of AimPoint Technologies, who presented Accelerated Skill Acquisition in Putting and by Henry Abbott, senior writer at ESPN, who presented Bad Decisions in Sports Skew Macho. Some of the others topics include; The Importance of Being Open: What Optical Tracking Data Can Say About NBA Field Goal Shooting, The Foundation of Elite Sports Analytics: Three Secrets You Must Know, and Better Off Guessing? Measuring the Quality of Draft Decisions. The talks have since become some of the most downloaded content on the conference website.
and featured 15 teams from top MBA programs including; MIT Sloan School of Management, Harvard Business School
, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, University of Virginia
Darden School of Business, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and Yale School of Management
. The MIT Sloan School of Management team was the winner of the inaugural competition.
Daryl Morey
Daryl Morey is an American sports executive. He is the current general manager of the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association. He was named Assistant General Manager on April 3, 2006 and succeeded Carroll Dawson as General Manager on May 10, 2007...
(General Manager & Managing Director of Basketball Operations for the Houston Rockets
Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston, Texas. The team plays in the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was established in 1967, and played in San Diego, California for four years, before being...
) and Jessica Gelman (Vice President of Customer Marketing & Strategy for the Kraft Sports Group) who oversee MIT Sloan
MIT Sloan School of Management
The MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
students (from the EMS Club) in the planning and operating of the yearly conference. It is open to anyone interested in sports and has been attended by students from over 150 different schools and representatives from over 50 professional sports teams in the MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS
MLS
- Organizations :* Major League Soccer, the highest level professional soccer league in the United States and Canada* Michigan Lutheran Seminary, a preparatory high-school in Saginaw, Michigan- Commerce :...
, and EPL
EPL
- Computing :* Early PL/I, a PL/I subset dialect used to write Multics* Eclipse Public License* Eltron Programming Language, a control language for various computer printers...
. The conference is held in the Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
area and while its location has moved from the MIT campus
Campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is located on a tract in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The campus spans approximately one mile of the north side of the Charles River basin directly opposite the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.The campus...
to higher capacity convention centers, it has always occurred during February or March. One of the largest student run conferences in the country, it has been sold out every year and has become the premier venue for sports analytics discussion. ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
has been the presenting sponsor since 2010 and the conference has garnered national attention through media outlets such as Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
, BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek
Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...
, NBC Sports
NBC Sports
NBC Sports is the sports division of the NBC television network. Formerly "a service of NBC News," it broadcasts a diverse array of programs, including the Olympic Games, the NFL, the NHL, MLS, Notre Dame football, the PGA Tour, the Triple Crown, and the French Open, among others...
, Fox Sports, ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption
Pardon the Interruption
Pardon the Interruption is a sports television show that airs weekdays on various ESPN TV channels, TSN, ESPN America, XM, and Sirius satellite radio services, and as a downloadable podcast. It is hosted by Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, who discuss, and frequently argue over, the top stories...
, and Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
. ESPN columnist Bill Simmons
Bill Simmons
William J. "Bill" Simmons III is a sports columnist, author, and podcaster. He currently writes columns and hosts podcasts for Grantland.com, which is affiliated with ESPN.com. He is a former writer for ESPN The Magazine and Jimmy Kimmel Live!...
has nicknamed the conference Dorkapalooza.
2012 Conference
The 6th annual conference will be held from March 2 - 3, 2012 at the Hynes Convention CenterHynes Convention Center
The John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center located in Boston was built in 1988 from a design by architects Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood. It replaced a previous building, also a convention center, regarded as "ungainly." The 1988 design "attempted to relate in scale and materials to its...
located in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. The two-day event will feature many new and returning panelists and has already secured the appearance of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman
Gary Bettman
Gary Bruce Bettman is the commissioner of the National Hockey League , a post he has held since February 1, 1993. Previously, Bettman was a senior vice-president and general counsel to the National Basketball Association...
, Bill James
Bill James
George William “Bill” James is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics...
, Dallas Mavericks
Dallas Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks are a professional basketball team based in Dallas, Texas. They are members of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association , and the reigning NBA champions, having defeated the Miami Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals.According to a 2011...
owner Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban is an American business magnate and investor. He is the owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theatres, and Magnolia Pictures, and the chairman of the HDTV cable network HDNet....
, sports agent Scott Boras
Scott Boras
Scott Boras is an American sports agent, specializing in baseball. He is the founder, owner and president of the Boras Corporation, a sports agency based in Newport Beach, Calif. that represents roughly 175 professional baseball clients, including many of the game's highest-profile players...
, NBA Deputy Commissioner & COO Adam Silver
Adam Silver
Adam Silver is the Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer of the National Basketball Association. He has held this post since July 2006.According to his NBA 101 information page, Silver has been with the league for over 14 years...
, ESPN commentator Michael Wilbon
Michael Wilbon
Michael Ray Wilbon is a former sportswriter and columnist for the Washington Post and current ESPN commentator. He serves as an analyst for ESPN and co-hosts Pardon the Interruption on ESPN with former Post writer Tony Kornheiser, and has been doing so since 2001.-Career:Wilbon began working for...
, and Bill Simmons.
2007
The inaugural conference was held on February 10, 2007 at the Ray and Maria Stata Center on the MIT campus and had 175 attendees. Nine different panel topics were showcased including baseball analytics featuring Bill James, basketball analytics, fan management, and sports technology. The conference was highlighted by keynote speakers J.P. RicciardiJ.P. Ricciardi
John Paul Ricciardi is a Major League Baseball executive who currently is a special assistant to New York Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson...
, then-Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations and General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays
Toronto Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays are a professional baseball team located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Jays are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball 's American League ....
and Jamie McCourt
Jamie McCourt
Jamie McCourt is the former CEO of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team-Early life:Jamie McCourt was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Jewish parents. Her father, Jack Luskin, ran the Luskin's chain of appliance stores in Maryland. As a 17-year-old freshman at Georgetown University, she met...
, then-CEO of the Los Angeles Dodger.
2008
The conference was held on February 9, 2008 at the Stata Center once again. The 350 guests in attendance heard a keynote speech by Boston CelticsBoston Celtics
The Boston Celtics are a National Basketball Association team based in Boston, Massachusetts. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1946, the team is currently owned by Boston Basketball Partners LLC. The Celtics play their home games at the TD Garden, which...
CEO and co-owner Wycliffe Grousbeck
Wycliffe Grousbeck
Wycliffe "Wyc" Grousbeck is CEO, governor, and co-owner of the National Basketball Association's Boston Celtics.After spending seven years as a partner at a venture capital firm, Highland Capital Partners, Grousbeck founded the group Boston Basketball Partners L.L.C...
. Among the eleven panels offered during the day, the most popular was Defending the Title, which included decision-makers from the then reigning champions of the four major sports leagues; Bill Polian
Bill Polian
Bill Polian is the Vice Chairman of the Indianapolis Colts NFL team. He rose to league prominence as the General Manager of the Buffalo Bills, building a team that participated in four straight Super Bowls, losing each time...
(President, Indianapolis Colts
Indianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League ....
), RC Buford (General Manager, San Antonio Spurs
San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio, Texas. They are part of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association ....
), Brian Burke
Brian Burke
Brian Thomas Burke was Labor premier of Western Australia from 25 February 1983 until his resignation on 25 February 1988...
(Then General Manager, Anaheim Ducks
Anaheim Ducks
The Anaheim Ducks are a professional ice hockey team based in Anaheim, California, USA. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...
), and Jed Hoyer (Then Assistant General Manager, Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
).
2009
The conference was held on March 7, 2009 at the Stata Center for the final time and was the first to use a featured panel format. Before an audience of 550 the panel, Value of Icon Players, highlighted by Boston Celtics all-star guard Ray AllenRay Allen
Walter Ray Allen is an American professional basketball player who is currently playing for the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association. He has played professionally for the Milwaukee Bucks, Seattle SuperSonics, and the Boston Celtics; and collegiately for the University of...
discussed how to quantify the contribution made by star players to a team or city. The other featured panel, Evolution of the Fan Experience, looked at how new technology, stadium design, game innovations, and customer initiatives impact fan experience. It was moderated by Bill Simmons and included ESPN commentator Jeff Van Gundy
Jeff Van Gundy
Jeffrey William "Jeff" Van Gundy is a former American basketball head coach. He coached most recently with the National Basketball Association's Houston Rockets...
and Brian Burke.
2010
The conference was held on March 6, 2010 and with over 1,000 attendees, it nearly doubled the gallery from the previous year. As a result, the conference was moved off-campus to the Boston Convention and Exhibition CenterBoston Convention and Exhibition Center
The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center is the largest exhibition center in the Northeast United States, with some 516,000 square feet of contiguous exhibition space. It is located on Summer Street near the South Boston waterfront, Boston's World Trade Center, and across the harbor from Logan...
in South Boston to accommodate the growing interest. The conference was headlined by a panel that addressed the limits of statistical analysis entitled What Geeks Don't Get: The Limits of Moneyball and was moderated by author Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis may refer to:*Michael Lewis , American non-fiction author and financial journalist*Michael Lewis , Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf*Michael Lewis , Belizean racing cyclist...
and featured Bill Polian, Jonathan Kraft, Mark Cuban and Bill Simmons. One specific situation discussed was the November 15, 2009 game between the New England Patriots
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
and Indianapolis Colts in which the Patriots, up 34-28 with the ball on their own 28 yard line, decided to go for it on 4th & 2 rather than punt. Among the other popular panels were Coaching Analytics with New Jersey Nets
New Jersey Nets
The New Jersey Nets are a professional basketball team based in Newark, New Jersey. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
Head Coach Avery Johnson
Avery Johnson
Avery Johnson is a former American professional basketball player and current head coach of the National Basketball Association team New Jersey Nets. He has also coached the Dallas Mavericks, leading them to their first NBA Finals appearance and four consecutive 50+ win seasons...
and Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league...
Manager Buck Showalter
Buck Showalter
William Nathaniel "Buck" Showalter III is an American Major League Baseball manager for the Baltimore Orioles. He has previously served in a similar capacity with the New York Yankees , Arizona Diamondbacks , and Texas Rangers...
and Next Generation Sports Management and Ownership with Boston Celtics
Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics are a National Basketball Association team based in Boston, Massachusetts. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1946, the team is currently owned by Boston Basketball Partners LLC. The Celtics play their home games at the TD Garden, which...
Owner Steve Pagliuca and Tampa Bay Rays
Tampa Bay Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays are a Major League Baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays are a member of the Eastern Division of MLB's American League. Since their inception in , the club has played at Tropicana Field...
President Matt Silverman
Matthew Silverman
Matthew Silverman is an former investment banker who is currently the President of the Tampa Bay Rays. After graduating cum laude from Harvard and working for Goldman Sachs, he took the position in October 2005 when control of the team transferred to new majority owner Stuart Sternberg.Prior to...
.
Research Papers
A research paper track was introduced in which individuals could submit original analysis that offers a new perspective on anything from evaluating players and game strategies, to examining the success factors for sports business. The research paper track has continued to be an integral part of future conferences. Submissions are evaluated by the organizing committee and, if selected, authors make a 45-minutue presentation to vie for a $7,500 prize. The 2010 winner, Joe Sill, presented Improved NBA Adjusted +/- Using Regularization and Out-of-Sample Testing which analyzed the traditional way adjusted plus/minus is evaluated and offered a technique to improve its accuracy.2011
The conference was held from March 4 - 5, 2011 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center once again. The conference expanded to a two-day format for the first time, running from early Friday morning until late Saturday afternoon. It was attended by over 1,500 guests and had a waitlist of 300. The first panel of the conference was headlined by Malcolm GladwellMalcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell, CM is a Canadian journalist, bestselling author, and speaker. He is currently based in New York City and has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996...
and featured a dialog about whether modern athletes' skills are innate or developed through extensive training. For the remainder of the conference, each time-slot had 3 panels running simultaneously and covered the standard topics of Baseball, Basketball, and Football analytics along with a range of new content. Some of the more popular new panels included The Decision: How Players and Teams Will Choose in the Future with retired basketball player Donny Marshall
Donny Marshall
Donny E. Marshall is a retired American professional basketball player who was selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers the 2nd round of the 1995 National Basketball Association Draft.-Career:...
, CEO and Founder of Priority Sports & Entertainment
Priority Sports and Entertainment
Priority Sports and Entertainment is a full service sports management firm, representing NFL and NBA athletes, based in Chicago, Illinois and Sherman Oaks, California....
Mark Bartelsteain, R.C. Buford, Brian Burke, and Michael Wilbon, Referee Analytics with longtime NFL official Mike Carey
Mike Carey
Mike Carey is a British writer of comic books, novels, and films.-Early life and career:Carey was born in Liverpool, England, in 1959 - describing his young self as "one of those ominously quiet kids... [who] lived so much inside my own head I only had vestigial limbs"...
, and The Future of the Game Day Experience: HDTV vs. Live Events anchored by Co-founder and Chairman of HDNet
HDNet
HDNet is a men's interest television channel in the United States, broadcasting exclusively in high-definition format and available via cable and satellite television...
Mark Cuban. The research paper track was expanded and showcased the work of nineteen authors. The winner, Arup Sen, presented The Moral Hazard in Long‐Term Guaranteed Contracts: Theory and Evidence from the NBA which analyzed the effect the final year of a contract has on player performance. Additionally, the 2011 conference added several new facets to the traditional panel discussions. These events include the Evolution of Sport (EOS) presentations, the First Pitch MBA Sports Business Case Competition, and a trade show that offers sports-industry startups the ability to demonstrate products or services and connect with potential customers or business partners.
Evolution of Sport (EOS)
Similar in scope to TEDTED (conference)
TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
talks, these presentations offer individuals a chance to present a message, idea or thought that could someday change the face of sport. The 2011 conference featured 14 speakers who were each given roughly 20 minutes to address the audience. Two of the most popular presentations were by Mark Sweeney, founder of AimPoint Technologies, who presented Accelerated Skill Acquisition in Putting and by Henry Abbott, senior writer at ESPN, who presented Bad Decisions in Sports Skew Macho. Some of the others topics include; The Importance of Being Open: What Optical Tracking Data Can Say About NBA Field Goal Shooting, The Foundation of Elite Sports Analytics: Three Secrets You Must Know, and Better Off Guessing? Measuring the Quality of Draft Decisions. The talks have since become some of the most downloaded content on the conference website.
First Pitch MBA Sports Business Case Competition
The case competition presents teams with a current sports business situation and asks students to analyze the situation and present a recommendation. The initial competition was sponsored by AECOMAECOM
AECOM Technology Corporation is a professional technical and management support services firm. The company is ranked as the number one design firm for 2010 and 2011 by Engineering News-Record and number one by Architectural Record. It provides services in the areas of transportation, planning,...
and featured 15 teams from top MBA programs including; MIT Sloan School of Management, Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...
, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
Darden School of Business, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and Yale School of Management
Yale School of Management
The Yale School of Management is the graduate business school of Yale University and is located on Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. The School offers Master of Business Administration and Ph.D. degree programs. As of January 2011, 454 students were enrolled in its MBA...
. The MIT Sloan School of Management team was the winner of the inaugural competition.