Sports analytics have grown in the past few years, in part, because they tell a unique story about the game, one that is often hard to see by the casual viewer. This is why ESPN has embraced the effort of building an analytic group. With ESPN’s breadth of sports it covers, this creates major challenges to the group – to understand the data, to understand the games and their rules, and to tell stories that are truly informed. Our presentation will be founded around the breadth of sports, the data management involved, and the questions we will attempt to resolve.

About the Speaker:
Dean Oliver comes to ESPN from the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, serving as their Director of Quantitative Analysis over 4+ years, all of which were in the playoffs. Oliver wrote the authoritative guide on doing analytics in basketball, Basketball on Paper, and has applied his craft to personnel and coaching issues at the NBA and college levels. By coming to ESPN, he is leading the efforts to develop relevant metrics across all sports.