Game of Edges: The Analytics Revolution and the Future of Professional Sports
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4.2 • 10 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The story of how a new generation of tech-savvy franchise owners is reshaping every aspect of professional sports.
In the last two decades, innovation, data analysis, and technology have driven a tectonic shift in the sports business. Game of Edges is the story of how sports franchises evolved, on and off the field, from raggedly run small businesses into some of the most systematically productive companies around.
In today’s game, everyone from the owners to the marketing staff are using information—data—to give their team an edge. For analysts, an edge is their currency. Figuring out that bunting hurts your offense? That’s an edge. So is discovering metrics that can predict the career arc of your free agent shooting guard. Or combing through a decade of ticket-buying data to target persuadable fans.
These small, incremental steps move a sports franchise from merely ordinary to the leading edge. Franchises today are more than just sports; they integrate a whole suite of other businesses—television and digital content, gambling and real estate, fashion and apparel, entertainment, catering and concessions, and much more. But an optimized franchise has no room for error. Teams must do what the numbers say, reducing the element of chance, limiting those random moments of athletic heroism that make sports thrilling to watch. Optimization also means the franchise’s main goal isn’t championships anymore; it’s keeping you, the viewer, engaged with the product.
Drawing on extensive interviews with franchise owners, general managers, executives, and players, Bruce Schoenfeld introduces dynamic leaders who are radically reimagining the operations of these decades-old teams—and producing mind-boggling valuations. He joins the architects of the Golden State Warriors dynasty for an exclusive reception before tip-off. He stands among the faithful at Anfield, watching Liverpool’s analytics guru size up a prized midfielder. And he watches the president of the Chicago Cubs break ground on a new DraftKings gambling parlor at Wrigley Field, not ten miles from the site of the original Black Sox betting scandal.
Essential reading for anyone interested in sports, business, or technology, Game of Edges explores a world where winning the game is only the beginning.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This excellent study by New York Times Magazine contributor Schoenfeld (The Match) explores how data analytics has transformed professional sports. He suggests that the success of the Oakland Athletics' strategy of using sophisticated statistical analysis to identify and recruit undervalued players to the cash-strapped team and determine its game plans turned sports franchises from "glorified hobbies" into booming businesses. One consequence, Schoenfeld contends, is that sports have become less fun to watch; he cites how the rise of data led to "more strikeouts and home runs than ever, and fewer extra-base hits and acrobatic fielding plays," even though baseball fans say they would prefer to see the latter. Schoenfeld provides keen insight into how analysts upended traditional means of evaluating players, telling how in 2006 the Boston Celtics drafted college point guard Rajon Rondo after recognizing that his high number of turnovers indicated his coach played him frequently enough to accumulate them. Schoenfeld demonstrates a perceptive understanding of what draws fans to sports, and his sharp analysis illuminates what's lost in big data's takeover; he warns that overreliance on data sometimes misleads coaches and that the corporatization of teams risks turning fans' emotional connections into transactional ones. A worthy spiritual sequel to Moneyball, this makes for a bracing look at a fundamental shift in professional sports.
