CHICAGO – March 3, 2016 – STATS LLC, the world’s leading sports technology, data and content company, will have newly appointed Director of Data Science, Patrick Lucey, presenting a paper at the 2016 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference Research Track Final.
The paper, written by Felix Wei, Patrick Lucey, Stuart Morgan, Machar Reid and Sridha Sridharan, is a collaboration between STATS newly-formed Data Science Team, the Australian Institute of Sport, Tennis Australia and Queensland University of Technology. The paper will be presented as a finalist in the conference’s prestigious Research Paper Competition.
The paper, entitled The Thin Edge of the Wedge: Accurately Predicting Shot Outcomes in Tennis Using Style and Context Priors, aims to discover patterns of player movement and ball striking which are indicative of changing the probability of winning a point. Using optical-tracking data it is possible to form a representation of a player’s style, enabling researchers to personalize interactions between players based on match context. This approach facilitates more accurate point prediction and an enhanced understanding of how points are won through the manipulation and exploitation of space on the court.
“In professional sport, there is an enormous amount of tracking data available. This paper showcases some methods we can use to maximize the value of it,” said Lucey, Director of Data Science at STATS. “Even though the paper focuses on tennis, similar ideas can be applied across other sports. Considering how much of this data we have at STATS, and the charter of the Data Science Team is to generate new technology using this data, it is a very exciting time.”
Each year the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference Research Paper Competition presents exciting insights and fresh perspectives on a wide range of sports. An opportunity to highlight new research in front of an audience of industry decision-makers, the competition is an important platform for contributing to the analytical discourse in professional sports.
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