The line-up up of smart minds for Thursday’s Sport for Business Members’ round table on Analytics is now complete. We have Mark Quigley from Accenture who are hosting the event, Dermot Rigley from RTE, Stephen O’Leary and Megan Bastic from two young Irish companies making a name in data analysis; Paul Dermody from the GAA together with Dublin GAA Statistician Ray Boyne; Ulster Bank Senior manager and former League of Ireland manager Alan Matthews, Johnny Bloomfield from Support2Perform; Jonathan Bradley from Sports Institute Northern Ireland, Aoife Mhuirí from Sports Clinic Plus, and Brian O’Mullane from the gaming world of Bragbet.
Analytics week on Sport for Business continues with information from Bloomberg Sports on the immediate impact of concussion on players participating in Major League Baseball.
This is particularly relevant given that Ireland will be hosting a conference on awareness and impact of concussion in sport at the Aviva Stadium on December 13th.
It is an issue which has been in the media and through the courts with regard to NFL in recent years but research conducted recently by Acquired Brain Injury Ireland also reveals the impact closer to home with 54 per cent of footballers and hurlers surveyed having endured a concussion during play.
The impact of this in terms of mental capacity and long term health will be discussed on December 13th but Bloomberg have produced analysis which shows the very short term impact on a players performance.
Their findings indicate a substantial loss of power and speed in the wake of a concussion. This can be seen through an easy metric in terms of the number of ‘at bat’ opportunities needed to secure a home run rising from 36 to 44.
The data used to indicate this impact drew on only ten of the many thousands of data points which a company like Bloomberg will gather on any given sporting event.
This has use in terms of sports analysis by teams and in this case healthcare professionals but it is also vital in terms of driving rich content to sports fans through second screen devices.
Another survey this week showed that among 18-34 year olds, more (28%) considered their mobile to be their first choice screen than was the case with television (27%).
We will publish the take aways to emerge from Thursday morning’s session within 24 hours, as well as identifying a number of initiatives where sport and business can work closer together in the area of data analytics.
Sports Analytics Round Table – Oct 24
Sports Tourism Seminar – Nov 07
Irish Sponsorship Awards
Sports Philanthropy Round Table
Youth Sports Conference
Sport for Business 20/20 for 2015 – Oct 07 2014
