The Impact of Analytics Utilization on Team Performance: Comparisons Within and Across the U.S. Professional Sports Leagues

摘要

Business analytics, defined as the use of data to make better, more relevant, evidence-based business decisions, has received a great deal of attention in practitioner circles. Organizations have adopted business analytics in an effort to improve revenue, product placement, and customer satisfaction. Professional sports teams are no different. While analytics has been used for over 30 years, the use of analytics by professional sports teams is a relatively new concept. However, it is unclear whether the teams that have adopted analytics are seeing any results. If not, then perhaps analytics is not the right solution. Analyses across the four, major U.S. sports leagues and within leagues show little to no competitive (on-field) or attendance (off-field) differences for the teams that have adopted analytics. Areas for additional research are provided in order to better understand the apparent disconnect between the hype in the sports industry and the lack of measurable results.