MIT Sloan Sports Analytic Conference

As noted in this space recently, the 5th Annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference was held in Boston this weekend. The conference’s mission is “to provide a forum for industry professionals (executives and leading researchers) and students to discuss the increasing role of analytics in the sports industry.”

A sold out conference found 1,500 attendees listening to an astounding array of panelists—including our own Michael McCann sitting on a panel discussing Sports Labor Issues. Some of the more interesting speakers included Malcolm Gladwell, Mark Cuban (sporting a “talk nerdy to me” t-shirt), ESPN’s Bill “The Sports Guy” Simmons, and Brian Burke of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

To get a sense of the conference, which not surprisingly did a wonderful job using social media, you can check out the Twitter feeds at this link.

Serving an academic purpose, the conference had a MBA Sports Case Competition (MIT was just announced as the winner so several attendees and I will be asking for a recount) and accepted over 100 research papers. The authors of these papers were around to share their insights but the papers themselves can be accessed online at this link.

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