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India's Take on Sports Analytics PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION (2020) 57(9): 5817-5827 ISSN: 00333077 India’s Take on Sports Analytics Rohan Mehta1, Dr.Shilpa Parkhi2 Student, Symbiosis Institute of Operations Mangement, Nashik, India Deputy Director, Symbiosis Institute of Operations Mangement, Nashik, India Email Id: [email protected] ABSTRACT Purpose – The aim of this paper is to study what is sports analytics, what are the different roles in this field, which sports are prominently using this, how big data has impacted this field, how this field is shaping up in Indian context. Also, the aim is to study the growth of job opportunities in this field, how B-schools are shaping up in this aspect and what are the interests and expectations of the B-school grads from this sector. Keywords Sports analytics, Sabermetrics, Moneyball, Technologies, Team sports, IOT, Cloud Article Received: 10 August 2020, Revised: 25 October 2020, Accepted: 18 November 2020 Design Approach analysis, he had done on approximately 10000 deliveries. Another writer, for one of the US The paper starts by explaining about the origin of magazines, F.C Lane was of the opinion that the sports analytics, the most naïve form of it, then batting average of the individual doesn’t reflect moves towards explaining the evolution of it over the complete picture of the individual’s the years (from emergence of sabermetrics to the performance. There were other significant efforts most advanced applications), how it has spread made by other statisticians or writers such as across different sports and how the applications of George Lindsey, Allan Roth, Earnshaw Cook till it has increased with the advent of different 1969. In this year The Baseball Encyclopedia was enabling technologies. Then the Indian context is published by Macmillan Inc, founded by George studied, in terms of opportunities, supply and Brett. This encyclopedia was a comprehensive demand, growth of the field, how the B-schools collection of the major-league baseball statistics are faring in this context, initiatives by right from the year 1871. This paved the way for independent institutions and lastly the survey of further research which was carried out by different the B-school grads to understand their knowledge writers. Bill James was one among them, who about the sector, interests, exposure and coined the term sabermetrics. Sabermetrics also expectations from it. known as SABRmetrics (Society for American Introduction Baseball Research) can be understood as analysis of the actual (empirical) data to assist in decision Sports analytics in nutshell, is capturing the making. Bill James’s Baseball Abstract from 1982 required data with the help of technology, then till 1988 included his work on sabermetrics and its running the data through statistical model, tools fundamentals. There were other sabermetricians and visualization to provide insights into player such as Pete Palmer, who along with John Thorm, performances and assist in giving published The Hidden Game of Baseball – which recommendations to the player or the team. had a summary of the sabermetric principles. Though Henry Chadwick ,one of the pioneer Apart from this it also had few associations with writers of baseball, who was inducted in the the work done by F.C Lane. In 2002, Bill James national baseball hall of fame in 1938 [31] wrote Win Shares, which he summarized the invented the box score in 1859 which is used to performance of every player in the major league evaluate players, the initial efforts in sports by a single number for every season, which analytics (emerged from baseball) started in the succeeded Palmer’s Total Player Rating. early years of 20th century, with Hugh Fullerton predicting the outcome of the world series [26]. In the year 2003, Michael Lewis wrote Moneyball Later on, in the year 1910, he published an article that gave insights on the work done by Oakland “The Inside Game”, where he gave insights to the athletics and its general manager Billy Beans. It 5817 www.psychologyandeducation.net PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION (2020) 57(9): 5817-5827 ISSN: 00333077 was from this moment, where teams understood while he was working for Roke Manor research. the importance of sabermetrics and how teams can Hawk-eye uses cameras (for triangulation and improve their performances by analyzing the data. creating 3d image), speed gun for measuring the By 2012, almost all the Major league Baseball speed of the ball, thereby predicts the trajectory of teams had employed at least one statistician the ball. Over the years other applications of (sabermetrician). analytics have been introduced, such as Literature Review performance analysis of the players from a specific country in IPL using cluster analysis[11], Having looked at the emergence of sports player ranking with respect to the performance in analytics, now the further parts will concentrate different formats of the game [15], team selection on the nuances of the field, divergence to different by using a multi-criteria and multi-objective sports, impact of technologies and other points as decision making approach [15]. Another mentioned previously. The study focuses on the application is in predicting the out-comes of the team sports which are considered to be highly game (the dynamic win percentage of the teams valued or rated in terms of financial metrics [2]. contesting) or predicting the score of the team From the application point of view the work done batting. WASP (Winning And Score Predictor) is by researchers, major leagues in the sports – one such technique used to predict the scores and standards adopted by them, individually on team probable outcomes of the match [19]. Other basis or as a league and the work done by the technique predicts the outcome of the game companies who have published the white papers considering the player strength and weaknesses, has been explored. comparing it with the opposition and recommends The Sports analytics market team selection [9]. Another application is predicting or calculating the correct/winning score The worldwide sports market is expected to reach for the team batting second (in limited overs approximately the value of US $4 billion by 2022 cricket) in case the match is called off due to [47] and US $5.2 billion by 2024 [48]. Sports inclement weather. ICC has formally adopted the analytics is majorly concerned with Data driven DLS (Duckwroth Lewis Stern method) since decision making (to assist coaches, managers, before the 2015 world-cup [39]. Over the years players etc) and predictive analytics (to predict the the different statistical measures or KPIs are used outcome of games, performance of individuals to assess the player’s performance – strengths, etc). The market, based on the application is weakness etc. From batting average to finding out prominently stratified into performance analysis, the most preferred scoring shot or the favorable player safety & fitness, valuation, fan engagement scoring shot of the player [espn] different metrics and broadcast management. The performance are used by coaches, players, oppositions to devise analysis and fan engagement are the two areas a suitable strategy. growing at a rapid pace [48], due to the increase in demand for the relevant metrics and data analysis b. Football by coaches for improving the team or player Football being more past paced game than cricket performance and by board management for has more need of real time data analysis than increasing the revenues by engaging the fans in cricket. Also, the way the sport has been the most effective way. The market is also structured with teams playing at least 30 league stratified on the basis of the sport – team sport & games in a season (for leagues that have at least individual sport. The team sport market is 15 teams), other domestic matches, champions expected to grow more rapidly than the individual league and players also representing their national sport segment [48]. side, the data being generated is huge and it needs Different sports and its applications in-memory analytics [37]. Approximately 6000 videos are added into the database of a company a. Cricket every month and around 500 people are employed The early forms of visual analytics in cricket was to analyze it frame by frame [30]. English Premier observed with the emergence of hawk-eye in 2001 league, had a tie-up with opta sports as a media [36]. Hawk-eye developed by Dr. Paul Hawkins, data partner for 2017-18 season, where opta sports could collect data and was also made publicly 5818 www.psychologyandeducation.net PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION (2020) 57(9): 5817-5827 ISSN: 00333077 available to different media [27]. Opta had earlier effective fan engagement is also one of the introduced an advanced metric system which had areas that come under sports analytics. David parameters such as expected goals, expected Johnson once said that it is important for NHL and assists etc which calculates the expected goals or broadcasters to incorporate data to tell stories, assists a player should have had during the match instead of considering coach’s or analysts opinion based on different parameters. This is somewhere as gospel. He wanted data to back the storyline between predictive analytics and descriptive [28]. Up to 2010 analytics in NHL wasn’t looked analytics. Also, other applications include finding upon with great respect. [2]. But now most of the out or exploiting the weakness of the opposition NHL teams have analytics staff and some have team by analyzing their matches against other even recruited academic statisticians for the same. teams who were able to do well against them, There are even few R packages available that creating game plans for specific instances or provide the data for processing NHL games. One scoring opportunities – during a freekick or a of the areas that has been explored in NHL is the corner [30].
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