Sports analytics: concept, significance, characteristics, areas of focus

Igor Ponkin

Abstract


The article is devoted to the study and explanation of the concept and idea of one of the industry-specific subject areas of applied analytics: sports analytics. The author touches upon the history of sports analytics, noting that it has been around for over 100 years. The article explains the significance and characteristics of sports analytics and shows the current and projected financial capacity of the sports analytics market as estimated by experts. The author provides a brief overview of some of the definitions and explanations of the concept of “sports analytics” presented in scientific and applied analytical literature, accompanying them with his own definition of the concept under study. The author proves that sports analytics has very significant, objectively determined differences from its “sisters” — other industry-specific subject-object areas of applied analytics — and the article provides a detailed description of the determinants of these differences. All general types (areas) of applied analytics, distinguished on the basis of their instrumental nature and modality, are applicable in the field of sports, but, in the author's opinion, the most significant for understanding sports analytics is the classification and designation of fractional areas of sports analytics on a subject-object sub-branch basis. The article provides a detailed author's classification based on the specified basis. This provides a mapping of the entire diversity of sports analytics. The author refers to digital technological solutions that significantly change the landscape of sports analytics. For example, the article draws attention to the active use of computer vision functions in machine sports analytics. The author briefly touches upon issues concerning the influence of sports analytics on sports law and lex sportiva (self-regulation in sports), identifying problems in this complex intellectual field.


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