Sports Analytics: A Guide for Coaches, Managers, and Other Decision Makers

by Benjamin C. Alamar, Dean Oliver (Foreword)

Benjamin C. Alamar founded the first journal dedicated to sports statistics, the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports . He developed and teaches a class on sports analytics for managers at the University of San Francisco and has published numerous cutting-edge studies on strategy and player evaluation. Today, he cochairs the sports statistics section of the International Statistics Institute and consults with several professional teams and businesses in sports analytics.

There isn't a better representative of this emerging field to show diverse organizations how to implement analytics into their decision-making strategies, especially as analytic tools grow increasingly complex. Alamar provides a clear, easily digestible survey of the practice and a detailed understanding of analytics' vast possibilities. He explains how to evaluate different programs and put them to use. Using concrete examples from professional sports teams and case studies demonstrating the use and value of analytics in the field, Alamar designs a roadmap for managers, general managers, and other professionals as they build their own programs and teach their approach to others.

Genres: Sports, Football, Nonfiction, Business

152 pages, Hardcover

First published July 2, 2013

Reviews

[Daniel Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although there were some interesting insights from this book, I found it very frustrating. First of all, what is the purpose of this book? Instead of being an interesting and informative book for curious analytic fans, it seems as if it was meant for sport owners/general managers to read who have no idea what analytics is, just so they could hire Alamar. If that was his intention, I wish him the best of luck.

This book reaffirms my belief that nobody on the outside truly has the information to evaluate what a sports team is doing. With that said, I view that as the biggest fault. The sports industry has problem been the dumbest major american industry for the last half a century. Its remarkable to see how stupid some teams have been. The funny part about it is that now, all these new "analytics" driven teams think they are smart, when in reality, they are almost as dumb as their predecessors. The reason for this is how closed in the system is. Ignoring how much an echo chamber many of these teams are, their resource pool is way too small. Fans are probably the greatest possible resource, but they have been not only completely ignored, but shut out of the process. This is quite unfortunate.

The actual quality of this book is either a 1 or a 2 but because its about an industry with almost no public information, I think it deserves a 3 or a 4.

[Thomas Singler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Une bonne introduction aux problématiques de la mise en place d’une stratégie analytics dans les organisations sportives. On peut regretter néanmoins 1/ un ouvrage qui reste relativement en surface sur l’analytics en elle-même et ses problématiques techniques 2/ le format livre est sans doute moins adapté qu’une dizaine de slides PPT qui auraient très bien fait l’affaire.

[Sierra]

I read the second edition. I picked this up because I really like the PFF NFL podcast, and I wanted to get more background. It delivered on exactly what the title promises - a brief overview of sports analytics, kind of what I would expect in an intro college course about it.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Edu Gonzalo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good introduction for this area of analytics. Missing some mirw formal contents regarding methods. Too focused on certain sports.

[Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

He is incredibly vague. Having worked for many professional teams, he's not allowed to disclose proprietary stuff from his experience. So he totally speaks in generalities. "One MLB team..." "One NBA team's executives..."

He talks about a grading scale to evaluate coaches for hire. Gives nothing about what that scale entails.

The book also has been vetted by the peer-review process, so I found it useful in my research on the state of the sports analytics industry. Some Goodreads reviewers have said it has nothing about analytic findings. Well yeah, this is an instruction manual. There are plenty of other books for that kind of stuff. Send me a message if you'd like some suggestions.

This is useful, but you may have to read it more than once due to the lack of concrete examples. And that's doable, as it is pretty short.

[Kirsten Tautfest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Accessible for the lay person

Easily read for the lay person or old school coach who is not used to the changing world of sports data. Also good for the fan who may wish to have a peek behind the scenes of the changing world of how his favorite team is put together. I'm a sports fan but also a sports fiction writer. I picked this book up to get a better grasp of what a character I crafted might think like. It's been good for deepening my understanding of his fictive mindset.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fine book. It's meant to be read from an organisational point of view, not necessarily from that of a fan. I thought there were many interesting and useful insights for me as a coach trying to discover how to use the data I have at my disposal. The book describes a way of thinking, more than a particular system, or specific stats and what they mean.

[Matthew Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the new version and it has some good udpated stories, but the source remains the same, and it is awesome. Great reference for anybody who is interested in analytics. It says it's for coaches, managers, and others. But it is great for the actual analysts/data scientists as well. Great job Ben!!

[Gregg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting to know that at least according to the author pro teams are not as neck deep in analytics as you'd think they'd be given they're looking for every possible small edge.