Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Foundations of Analytics for Sport Managers
A Brief History of Analytics in Sport
Evolution of Sport Analytics and the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference
Data and Decision-Making
Systems and Analytics
Emerging Applications of Sport Analytics
Summary
Online Activities
References

Chapter 2. Working With Quantitative Data in R
R Basics
Exploring Datasets
Isolating Variables With Brackets, c(), and Operators
Descriptive Statistics
Inferential Statistics
Summary
Online Activities
References

Chapter 3. Plotting Data in R
Base Plotting Structures in R
Setting and Mapping Plot Elements
Plotting Data With ggplot2()
Map Plots
Summary
Online Activities
References

Chapter 4. Data-Driven Decision-Making
Machine Learning Analysis: WNBA Players’ Positions Analytics Application
Esport Analytics Application
European Football Analytics Application
NFL Player Evaluations Analytics Application
Comparative Analysis of Male and Female Prize Monies and Salaries Analytics Application
Online Activities
References

Chapter 5. Natural Language Processing and Text Mining
Language as Object Classes and Strings
Basic Text Processing Workflow
Identify Text Sources, Preprocessing, and Feature Extraction
Analytics
Insight and Recommendations
Summary
Online Activities
References

About the Author

Christopher Atwater is an assistant professor of sport management in the School of Hospitality, Sport, and Tourism Management at Troy University. He teaches analytics courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Robert Baker is a professor and the director of the Center for Sport Management at George Mason University. He is a former president of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM), a founding board member of the World Association for Sport Management (WASM), and a founding commissioner of the Commission on Sport Management Accreditation (COSMA). He has conducted numerous presentations and produced articles on sport analytics.

Ted Kwartler earned his MBA from Notre Dame. He is an instructor at Harvard University. He has conducted many presentations and written articles on sport analytics. He also authored a popular book entitled Text Mining.